Outside Context Solution
by MadGreenSon
Summary: The galaxy is under siege, worlds are threatened and devastated by a new enemy. The situation is a complete Outside Context Problem compared to every threat ever faced by the races of the Citadel. For this, a new answer must be found...
1. Outside Context Solution 1

**THE CITADEL, Private Council Chambers, 2515 CSD**

The three members of the Citadel Council controlled, between them more political, economic and military power than any other sapient beings in the galaxy. It was galling, in a way, to sit calmly and listen to a report that summarized for them the fact that all of their power and influence were useless. No fleet or Specter could end this threat.

It was like listening to a prophecy of an apocalypse, after the end had already begun.

"In conclusion, given the current rate of attacks and the continual improvement displayed by the Outsiders, unless a way is found to attack through their portals, all predictions point to a great many more worlds being lost in the next ten years" finished Admiral Axuus Meridius, a no-nonsense Turian who had advised the Council on military matters for more than twenty years.

"Surely, Admiral, there is some hope in these predictions, our peoples have stood for more than a thousand years." queried Councilor Tevos anxiously.

This drew the Turian Councilor from his contemplative staring at his Salarian counterpart, he had not been paying full attention to Admiral Meridius as he had received the breifing earlier when the Admiral arrived on the station, and it seemed as if the Salarian Councilor, Movin, had a new card he was getting ready to play. _Damned Salarian brinksmanship! We have no time for this nonsense._

"Councilor Tevos, you and I both both know just how grim the big picture is, with the loss of Irune last year and the Volus being evacuated to various colony worlds, both the economy and morale have hit new lows throughout Citadel Space. Palaven and Sur'Kesh coming under siege this year have just added to the problem." the Turian Councilor, Menelus informed her.

"Admiral, we thank you for your time" he continued, dismissing the Admiral, while his facial expression let the Admiral know that they'd be talking later, in depth.

Councilor Tevos acknowledged both Menelus' point and the dismissal of the Admiral with a graceful nod of her head and followed her fellow Councilor's attention to their Salarian compatriot.

"Councilor Movin, you have something to add?" she asked calmly, centuries of experience allowing her to dismiss her anxieties for later.

Councilor Movin sat forward in his chair, uncharacteristically eager to speak.

"Indeed, while Admiral Meridius did give a good summation of the situation, I have an expert from the STG who will be able to give us hard facts and projections of future Outsider activity as well as a proposed mission to relieve the situation that will require full Council support to implement." Movin spoke quickly, as Salarians are wont to do. "with your permission Councilors, I will ask him to make his presentation now."

Tevos and Menelus looked briefly at one another, having worked together for slightly over fifteen years, they had a good rapport and could communicate a great deal with just a look. Quickly deciding to indulge their newest member, they both turned back to Movin.

"Please proceed, Councilor" Menelus said, gesturing to the intercom on the arm of Movin's chair.

"Thank you" Councilor Movin replied while triggering his intercom "Dr. Solus? Please come and present your findings."

Quickly entering the room, a brown toned Salarian, considered handsome among his people, and by those inclined to be attracted to Salarians, entered the room. He was dressed in the uniform of the STG and carried himself with great energy and enthusiasm.

Bowing deeply, Dr. Lorn Solus wasted no time getting to the point. "Greetings Councilors. Have with me results of thousands of simulations run on Outsider activity patterns and predictions of what is to come."

Activating his omnitool to display holographic representations as he went, Dr. Solus continued. "During last fifteen years a total of thirty two planets have manifested "portals" within their oceans. When portals are disgorging Outsiders measurable spike in radiation detected and portal expands accordingly."  
Dr. Solus took a breath as the holograms showed footage of various portals, including some rare footage of Outsiders emerging from them.

"Other than tragic events at Irune, emergence of Outsiders follows mathematical progression in frequency of attacks and power of creatures." Dr Solus continued "Obvious that creatures are being adapted to methods used to combat them. Worrying."

Dr. Solus triggered another set of holograms, displaying the planets currently under siege as well as various simulations run by the STG.

"Outsiders are what could be called an Outside Context Problem. Current civilization has no context for attacks of this kind. No method to respond to attacks efficiently. If current trends continue, even with progress made on better weaponry, better means to fight, outcome inevitable. Planetary civilizations overwhelmed, all survivors reduced to living in space as Quarians do." Dr. Solus pronounced the last almost dispassionately, but with an undertone of deep sadness.

"Surely you didn't come here simply to tell us we are doomed Doctor!" exclaimed Menelus appealed at what he was seeing.

"No Councilor! Would _never_ do that! To lose hope is to lose the war." Dr Solus replied sounding more confident than anyone who had presented such a report should. "We have developed plans. Gathered intelligence. Need Council support."

Dr Solus then triggered a new round of extraordinarily appalling images, so grotesque that none present knew quite what to make of them.

Before he could begin speaking, Councilor Tevos exclaimed "What is this? What are we seeing?"

"Images taken from surface of Irune last week" Dr Solus replied. "It is certain that Irune has become breeding ground for Outsiders. As more mature, they enter portals and are seen on other worlds."

Dr. Solus took a breath, steeling himself. "Due to this, the Special Tasks Group formally requests that, with Aru system be evacuated and quarantined and that anti-matter bombs be deployed against Irune to sterilize the surface. Prevent further Outsiders being produced there. Will slow the rate of attacks"

Silent shock settled over the room. Legally, Dr. Solus had just asked the Council to commit a war crime that the Council itself had drawn up the laws forbidding.

 _Then again, Irune apparently no longer fits any definition of "garden world"_ Menelus thought, while looking at the other Councilors. _But there's something else._

"We will have to discuss it privately, Dr. Solus, but you do make a compelling argument" Menelus told him.

"However, I can tell that this is not all you are bringing us today" The Turian Councilor finished.

Dr. Solus straightened his uniform jacket and continued "No. Sterilizing Irune will slow the attacks. Not stop them. More must be done. The problem is Outside Context. Must look outside normal context for solution."

Dismissing the holograms, Dr. Solus got to the most important part of his presentation.

"Nothing within current knowledge will give the edge needed for victory. We must look outside what we know. For an Outside Context Problem, we will need an Outside Context Solution. We have a new scout cruiser available, SUSS _Silent Step_. The STG formally requests exemption from laws for this ship to allow exploration beyond known relays." Dr. Solus continued"Must look for new solutions, research not enough, new races, new sources of Precursor technology. _Any_ advantage."

While Tevos and Movin questioned Dr. Solus further on details of funding and the various legalities surrounding his proposed mission, Menelus, having already decided, was instead calling up the details of Citadel and Turian Fleet distribution and considering what ships and commanders were properly discreet enough for the distasteful task set before him.

Councilor Tevos wrapped up the meeting "Dr. Solus, thank you. We appreciate your frank and honest appraisal and your recommendations, we will inform you of our decision regarding your proposed mission within one standard day"

Dr Solus bowed to the assembled Councilors. "It has been an honor" he replied, before turning on his heel and departing the room.

Alone at last, the Citadel Council felt the weight of the galaxy settle firmly on their shoulders.

One week later, the surface of Irune was molten slag, it's atmosphere burned away.

One week after that, SUSS _Silent Step_ activated a dormant relay in the Nemean Abyss and vanished from known space.


	2. Unstoppable Force Paradox 1

**RANNOCH, Tikkun System, 2515 CSD**

It is difficult for an organic mind to conceive of the Geth Consensus. Information is more solid than steel there and moves as fast as light, thought has more weight than lead and interdependent cooperation is the default state for the intelligences that inhabit it. Because they are so dependent on one another for sapience, the Consensus itself could be said to be one mind that talks endlessly to itself, but even that is horribly inaccurate.

Three enormous installations hang in geosynchronous orbits around the world of Rannoch in the Perseus Veil, each hanging in space at a mathematically precise distance from each other around the equator. They are cold and silent, no lights or windows upon them like similar installations would have if they were built by organics, but ironically they do have a certain artistic flair to them, perhaps unintentional, but nonetheless these installations look as if they were grown in graceful rounded shape instead of built, most Geth construction looks strangely organic. The Geth did not see any irony in this.

It is in these three installations that all Geth activity around Rannoch was coordinated, starships large and small moved in precise paths and guided patterns, other installations floated at various orbits for purposes of construction, repair or simply to create more server space for the Consensus. Beyond that, there are other, similar installations in the Tikkun system and throughout the Perseus Veil.

Within the Consensus, thoughts and plans move at lightspeed, cool, passionless, and relentless.

[Monitoring of quantum tunneling event at grid 817, sector 4, sub-aquatic, continues. Event horizon stable, radiation level stable, no change from last update. 23,456 hypothesis regarding origin of quantum tunneling event proven false. 5,347,092 more hypothesis still being tested in simulation, 5,034 hypothesis moving to initial experimental stages. No additional runtimes, dark space experimental platforms, or server space required]

{Restoration of ((Creator)) Reliquary at grid 9973, sectors 2,3,and 5 complete. Restoration of ((Creator)) Reliquaries at grid 1811 sectors 23, 24, 25, and 26 80% complete. Removal and recycling of chemical contaminants from organic-construct incursion 95% complete. Hala'kish at ((Creator Reliquary)) grid 2235, sector 4 growing at optimum levels, Restoration of ((Creator Homeworld)) to pre-Morning War status 82% complete.}

[[Prototype DREADNOUGHT platform passed all stress testing and bugfix routines, beginning construction of 27 additional platforms. Resources allocated and partitioned accordingly. Prototype REMOVAL platform passed initial stress-testing and bugfix routines, 3 Prototype REMOVAL platforms prepared for next organic-construct incursion. Production of CANNON, LASER, PRIME, ROCKET and TORPEDO platforms increased by 150% due to predicted needs for next organic-construct incursion. Resources allocated and partitioned accordingly. All other platform construction remains at previous levels and resource consumption. ((Thought-Home)) construction continues, construction and materials innovations have reduced time to completion by 3%]]

/50 platform types ready for prototyping and testing. 25 weapon variations ready for prototyping and testing. Additional knowledge of cosmology now being distributed to all databases due to study and experimentation regarding quantum tunneling event. No new data available on status of (Geth) ((Soul)). ((Creator)) population remains stable. No significant change in other organics monitored.\\\

[ALERT. Radiation levels increased by 10% at quantum tunneling event at grid 817, sector 4, sub-aquatic. Prototype sensors deployed with satellite and ground senors to monitor quantum tunneling event for new data. ALERT incursion beginning, detecting 3 organic-constructs emerging from quantum tunneling event. Deploying platforms to intercept. Prototype REMOVAL platform 1 in position to intercept. Prototype REMOVAL platforms 2 and 3 still en route from constructor platform.]

[[Moving constructor platforms 023 and 097 to high polar orbits of ((Creator Homeworld))]]

In space above Rannoch, satellites moved into new positions to make room for additional satellites moving in to provide more sensor coverage. Dropships of all sizes descended from parking orbit toward the planet below and Geth cruisers began a slow and coordinated maneuver to get into a prime firing position for orbital bombardment.

They moved with flawless precision, every ship and satellite, like extensions of a single will.

Underneath Rannoch's ocean, the three Kaiju moved surprisingly gracefully for the massive, armor plated beasts that they were. With lessons learned from many battles here and elsewhere, these Kaiju were covered with thick armor plating, especially on their backs to ward off bombardment from above. The beasts themselves were eight limbed, almost centauroid as their four foremost limbs were designed with clawed hands. Beneath the armor plating of their backs they carried retractable fins. Unlike similar creatures deployed elsewhere, these tended toward silence and unemotional, predatory behavior. Where other Kaiju roared and rampaged, these moved pitilessly and silently more like sharks than rampaging monsters.  
Their creators knew that intimidation and demoralization was impossible, so they designed these creatures for efficiency in destruction only.

[ALERT organic-constructs moving toward restored ((Creator)) Reliquary at grid 1281 sectors 11, 12, and 13. Deploying additional platforms to intercept. Prototype REMOVAL platform 1 calculating intercept trajectory with organic-construct designated 02 of 03.]

Nine hundred kilometers from land, the battle was joined. Nine hundred torpedoes launched from aquatic Torpedo Drones converged on the Kaiju, causing the deep ocean around them to light up and flash boil as mass effect fields and fusion reactions caused explosions of plasma to cover the front half of each creature. The pressure wave from the explosions lashed outward causing the water above to bulge and burst in a boiling tsunami that would die out before hitting shore.

The creatures themselves were scarred by this initial salvo, but moved onward, having taken no true damage.

Increasing speed, the three creatures, in silent synchronicity, deployed the retractable fins on their backs as twenty seven hundred more torpedoes followed the initial salvo toward them.  
As one the creatures released a mind boggling amount of electricity into the water, causing the water around them to undergo electrolysis, sending hundreds of tons of separated hydrogen and oxygen up out of the ocean as they moved.  
The electrical charge had its intended effect, the torpedoes were rendered inert along with the majority of the Torpedo Drones firing them.

As the events below were playing themselves out, a new type of starship enteried the atmosphere at great speed, the thousands of Geth runtimes aboard the three hundred meter ship adjusted it's mass effect fields, barriers and heat sinks with incredible precision as it took a precisely calculated course downward.  
If any Quarians had been there to see it, they would have said that it resembled a Geth Dropship, and it did. However the size difference was not the only difference as this ship also seemed to have six coils along each side, tightly wound close to the spaceframe, like dense springs.

Meanwhile, the remaining Torpedo drones in the ocean, immediately reduced their mass and shot to the surface, taking to the air, and removing themselves from the engagement, waiting to be picked up for recycling as the current design was deemed to be no longer durable enough.

[ALERT new tactic by the organic-constructs effective in neutralizing TORPEDO platforms v2.1. New engagement area projected at grid 1281, sector 4. Prototype REMOVAL platform 1 will intercept organic-construct designate 02 of 03 at grid 1181, sector 20. Tripling deployment of platforms to grid 1281 sector 4]

The prototype Geth ship plunging through the atmosphere was now at a level of acceleration that would pulverize an organic crew and maintained course and speed only due to extremely deft maneuvers with it's mass effect field and thrust system allowed by the lightspeed calculations and reaction times of the thousands of runtimes stored within the ship itself.

As the Kaiju made their way toward land unopposed they become aware of a the newest Geth innovation too late to attempt a countermeasure as the pressure wave of the new Geth ship entering the ocean hit them only an instant before the creature in the middle was seemingly rammed by the new ship.  
As the Geth ship made physical contact with the beast, the twelve coils on it's sides unspooled into hundred meter long tentacles of powerful alloys that wrapped themselves around the creature.  
Just as the creature began to struggle against these bonds, and it's fellow monsters moved to assist. The ship powered up an intense mass effect field, reducing the relative mass of itself and it's trapped prey to less than 1% of their true mass and it's powerful thrusters began firing, carrying both ship and trapped creature out of the ocean in a heartbeat, both heading toward the sky above and the cold reaches of space.

[Prototype REMOVAL platform 1 successfully deployed]

Recovering from this unexpected setback, the remaining two creatures resumed course for land. Relentless in their purpose, armored and ready for what was to come.

On shore, tens of thousands of Geth platforms had deployed, they were massive constructs, easily three times the size of Colossus platforms, later they would be named the Laser Colossus and the Cannon Colossus by organics, they were optimized for their mission as mobile, long range artillery, and the consensus among them ran through targeting routines and began active scanning the ocean with every sensor available as they prepared their weapons. The Cannon platforms were an especially new innovation as they contained six massive heatsinks that rotated into position as each became overloaded, allowing the plasma cannon on the platform an unmatched rate of fire.  
Both Laser and Cannon platforms showed a marked deviation from previous Geth designs both in their size and in the fact that they moved on six legs, built around their weapon, with their sensor "flashlight" concealed within their armored frame.

Drifting in the air above the land bound platforms were massive Rocket Drones, themselves nearly the size of a Colossus due to their gigantic missile pods, by the thousands they were waiting with implacable patience to deliver their payloads, adding their sensors and runtimes to the local Consensus.

As the creatures entered the extreme range of the land based platforms sensors. Their former companion was entering low orbit, still struggling against it's captor.  
The Removal platform continued to boost upward and once it reached the previously calculated point in Rannoch's orbital space, explosive bolts released the metal tentacles from it's structure, inertia carried the creature onward as the Removal platform veered off and vectored toward it's designated repair station for repairs and replacement of it's primary weapons.

Carried onward by the momentum imparted to it by the Removal platform the creature thrashed about coldly and relentlessly attempting to escape it's bonds. Within moments its inertia had carried it into a crossfire of two Geth cruisers, who methodically used their GARDIAN lasers to remove the creature's limbs before deploying fighter-platforms to nudge it's course toward a waiting station that would capture the still-living torso in a mass effect field and bring it aboard for further study.

Down the gravity well, the Geth platforms silently maneuvered into position and began firing rockets plasma and lasers as one at the remaining two creatures as soon as they entered optimal range. Hundreds of shots are timed and targeted so that they hit the same locations, pulsed lasers, rockets and plasma bursts impacting as a single continuous stream of destructive energies hitting their targeted parts of the Kaiju's anatomy, boiling the concealing ocean away around the creatures even before they are close enough to begin surfacing.

Incredibly, the creatures bore up under the first seconds of this tremendous bombardment only to be staggered by the same kind of targeting accuracy from the orbiting cruisers beginning their pinpoint bombardment as well, every shot from the orbiting cruisers was timed and targeted to hit the exact same location on each creature once the concealing sea was vaporized. A new tactic, completely unexpected.

Withering under the continuous fire from the unexpectedly numerous platforms and starships arrayed against them, the creatures fell, armor cracked and buckled, dead to the ocean floor after three minutes of this barrage.

[Organic-constructs 01 of 03 and 03 of 03 rendered inert at grid 1281, sector 4. Radiation levels at quantum tunneling event returned to normal, current incursion ended. New data from quantum tunneling event being analyzed for inclusion into current hypothesis regarding nature and origin of quantum tunneling event. Platform recovery proceeding. ((Creator)) Reliquary at grid 1281 sectors 11, 12, and 13 undamaged]

{Deploying restoration, recycling, and sterilization platforms to grid 1281, sector 4 to minimize impact to biosphere. Restoration of ((Creator)) Reliquaries at grid 1811 sectors 23, 24, 25, and 26 81% complete.}

[[Commencing construction for 300 REMOVAL platforms for deployment near site of quantum tunneling event upgrading systems hardening 600% to compensate for observed and projected tactics by organic-constructs. Commencing construction/replacement of upgraded TORPEDO platforms to compensate for observed and projected tactics by organic constructs. Resources partitioned and allocated]]

Relentlessly, coolly and remorselessly the Geth continued to defend their creator's homeworld. Not even realizing yet how they were evolving and adapting under this pressure.  
They continued, neither celebrating nor mourning, preparing, building, and creating their future.


	3. Outside Context Solution 2

**THE CITADEL, Presidium Embassies, 2516 CSD**

In the lightly attended press room for the various embassies of the Citadel member races, the Volus Ambassador Hanal Von was finishing his statements regarding the state of the recently devastated Vol Protectorate. Losing their homeworld had been a terrible blow to the Volus collective psyche and racial pride, however they were now getting their bearings and as a people the Volus were recovering with admirable speed.  
It was difficult to tell, to be sure, when speaking with the average Volus, as their encounter suits made them, for the most part, seem almost comical and their translators only conveyed emotion if set to do so. Volus body language was often hard to read, due to their encounter suits.  
Despite his roundness and stature, Hanal Von did carry himself with dignity as he finished his statements with a vow.  
"The Vol Protectorate is dedicated, now more than ever, to making sure that no other shall suffer as we have. Thus we will be making available funding for relief efforts at all besieged worlds and additional funding to all of our allies for defense against these..monsters" Ambassador Von vowed, continuing he stated. "I cannot...take any questions at this time as I am now turning over the floor to the head of the Vol Protectorate Unified Banking Guild, Din Olar"

As Hanal Von, stepped away from the podium, a new Volus came from behind the curtain to take the stage, Din Olar was garbed in the highest quality encounter suit, and he managed to look somehow dignified and powerful and not at all comical, when he spoke, his deep voice carried an undercurrent of rage, something no sapient being in Citadel Space was used to hearing from a Volus.

"Greetings, fellow citizens of Citadel Space. Despite my position in the Protectorate, I am not here to speak of money or trade." Din Olar's voice was nearly a growl "I come to speak of _vengeance_. We are not a warlike people, we Volus are not built for it."

He paused for a moment, the breathing from his suit sounding raspy, almost menacing. Gasps came from the assembled reporters as a flare of dark energy was emitted from the encounter suit's eyes, a sign of a biotic in the grip of strong emotion.

"And now we have payed the price for our lack of aggression!" he practically screamed. "Our homeworld is dead and can never be recovered. No matter where we settle, no matter what homes we make, we are all forevermore exiles!"

"We are changing, we will change. Even now we fight beside out Turian brethren, who fought like heroes to insure that as many as possible escaped the disaster at Irune." he continued "Soon, we will fight everywhere these Outsiders show themselves, we are building, we are training, **_we will have blood_** for what was lost!"

Again he paused, looking out over the shell-shocked reporters assembled before him.

"But it is not enough!" He exclaimed, slamming a glowing fist against the metal podium, cracking it "It is **not**. Therefore, we are also offering a bounty; any individual or group who finds a way for a strike to be launched through these unbreakable portals, for us to bring death to the home of these Outsiders as they have brought death to our homes, will receive forty trillion credits and the full backing of the Unified Banks!"

The room exploded with questions.

 **PALAVEN, 2516 CSD**

Viewed from orbit, the Turian homeworld of Palaven was a beautiful, shining green planet, almost metallic looking when in the light of it's star Trebia. Currently, space around Palaven was host to massive construction efforts as orbital habitats of a size never before seen in the Trebian system were under construction to help with the population overflow from evacuated cities below and to help supply labor to the shipyards and construction facilities being established in Trebian space.

On the planet itself, another massive engineering project was underway as well, one costing hundreds of thousands of lives. A wall of death was being constructed around the Ignis Sea, which was home to the portal on Palaven that the Outsiders were using to attack.  
When complete, this wall would completely surround the Ignis Sea with a solid barrier and weapons enough to kill entire planetary populations, it was hoped this would be enough to hold the line against the beasts long enough for a better solution to be found.  
 _But it will be years yet before the Wall is finished_ thought General Garvus Arterius, overlooking the preparations going on around his command post at the former capital of Palaven, and the Turian Hierarchy; the city of Cipritine.  
Cipritine had the poor luck of being built on the scenic shores of the Ignis Sea, and therefore, in this time of disaster, the capital had been moved inland to the city of Ravennus.

 _Now we'll just have to wait a little longer and see if my plan is genius, or a waste of resources_. Garvus was looking over holo-displays showing artillery being sighted in along the coastline, aircraft being fueled and armed, and the mighty _Legatus_ tanks being loaded with munitions.

 _The new crop of Volus pilots really are fanatics, their willingness to risk everything may make this plan workable_. Genral Arterius considered as he went over all of the plans he and the other Generals protecting Palaven had made.

Cipritine, like all Turian cities, was a fortress. Now even more so as it's defenses had been upgraded to the point of being almost ridiculous, all the inhabitants of the former capital were volunteers, knowing that staying here was risking everything, but that the Hierarchy needed them for this plan to work.  
As plans went, it was fairly simple, Cipritine was set to draw fire, to act as bait to the Outsiders as the Wall of Death was built around the Ignis Sea. The Outsiders were provably drawn to large populations, so it was insured that Cipritine would have the largest population center around the Ignis Sea (all military).  
That combined with "taunting" attacks on any Outsiders emerging from their portal, to draw them here, to a killzone that was set to begin three kilometers out.  
Drawing the Outsiders here, would allow construction elsewhere to be less impeded.

Alarms began sounding throughout Cipritine and all along the Ignis Sea as an emergence event was registered at the portal.

 _Now we'll see if this plan is going to work_. General Arterius thought, with dread and hope in his heart, he called for all forces to deploy.

 **UNKNOWN SYSTEM, Voyager Cluster, 2516 CSD**

It had been tragedy that had drawn them here. More accurately, it had been the last, dying whimpers of tragedy that had drawn them here. More than thirty light years out they had started picking up transmissions, faint, but present against the background noise of the cosmos that led them back to the source.  
As they got closer to the system and translated the transmissions they began to realize the scope of the tragedy they had found.

They had been a young race, industrial and technological, but barely past the point of harnessing nuclear power. Vigorous and hard working, optimistic and forward thinking, aggressive and territorial. They had many traits, like all sapient species.

Now they had another, they were extinct.

By the time the SUSS _Silent Step_ was within five light years of the system they were hearing the end of a race, the last transmissions being a desperate call to the void for help.

It was heartbreaking.

Nevertheless, the crew were professionals, they steeled their hearts and entered the system to see what could be found.

 _Make a find we did, now we must go and see the results of an Outsider invasion of a more normal garden world_ thought Dr. Lorn Solus as he was going over the summary of the cache found in a rogue dwarf planet that this system had captured some twenty thousand years ago. _Some Element Zero, some tech we've seen before, a more efficient kinetic barrier, weaponized particle accelerators. Probably Prothean in origin._  
"Useless!" Dr. Solus declared, looking it all over. "Transmit our findings over the QEC. Detailed scans, schematics. All of it. Isn't enough."

"Dr. Solus, surely some of this will assist the war effort!" Operative Daelon countered.

Dr. Solus looked back with sadness "Yes. Very helpful. Particle accelerator design has greater range than even UV lasers in space. Use as hand held weapon revolutionary. Would be very helpful. IF we were fighting Krogan!"

Dr. Solus began pacing "Not fighting Krogan, fighting Outsiders, radiation effects from particle beams less effective. Outsiders _are_ radioactive. Very resistant. Taking a team to fourth world. Volunteers?"

Dr. Solus had stopped suddenly and was looking at his crew expectantly.

A little less than an hour later two shuttles departed the Silent Step, toward the fourth world of the system.

"Magnetosphere is reading as being in a state of continuing decay Doctor. Additionally, the oxygen content of the atmosphere is down even from what could be expected with solar winds starting to strip it away." reported Technician Wix from the sensors station in the shuttle "Levels of oxygen and nitrogen down, almost no nitrogen. High levels of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide with more than trace amounts of methane."

"Hmmm" murmured Dr. Solus "Byproducts of decay. Land near that coastal structure, low radiation readings there. The second shuttle will overfly continent. Deploy probes and drones."

"Affirmative Dr. Solus" acknowledged Operative Khorban, the pilot "beginning our descent and landing now"

While they were landing, Dr. Solus activated his omnitools and began recording his thoughts and observations.  
"Planet had entered nuclear age. Heavy industrialization. Remains of a large wall at coastal area. Signs of multiple fission weapon detonations across planet. Multiple skeletonized remains of Outsiders far inland. Among ruins. Ruins decaying at faster rate than should. More investigation needed." Dr. Solus dictated in his signature, rapid fire manner of speaking.

The shuttle settled near a wide fissure opened in an enormous concrete and steel wall built near the ocean. The footprints of a passing outsider could still be seen, torn into the earth and stone below.

Looking at the readings coming in from the probes and drones deployed on his omnitool, Dr. Solus and his team departed the shuttle to observe the area directly, wearing fully sealed hardsuits.

"Seawater sterile and evaporating into atmosphere, soil like ash, no nutrients or organic compounds. Organic compounds in air being dispersed like atmosphere in solar winds." Dr. Solus sucked a breath past his teeth as he ran the ash-like sand of the now barren beach through his hardsuited fingers "Planet dead, _violated_. Never again a garden world"

The team spread out some as they took in the environment, there was no longer any but the most residual traces of a portal in this world's ocean, so they felt in little danger. The wall itself could be considered a fine piece of engineering, nearly two hundred meters tall and 80 meters thick, it should have been able to withstand almost anything. _Almost_ anything.

The destruction in the surrounding area was almost total and it was difficult to discern what, if any, other defensive measures may have been taken. Any that had been were obviously futile.

"Dr Solus. We've picked up signs of activity in the ruins fifty kilometers south of your position, do you want us to check it out?" queried Operative Razzik over the com.

Standing up from where he had been examining what looked like skeletal remains of one of the inhabitants uncovered from the ashy sand by the wind. Dr Solus activated his transmitter.

"No. Continue to radio source, see if anything remains of native culture. We will investigate." he transmitted in his clipped manner.

Gesturing to his team, Dr. Solus led the way to the shuttle.

During the quick trip to the south, the entire team had time to view the utter desolation of the world from the ground level, it was appalling. They had incontrovertible evidence that scant few years before this had been a world thriving with life of all kinds, now it was an ash-covered wasteland losing atmosphere and water daily, drained of it's very _spirit_ it seemed.

While traveling, Dr. Solus made more notes into his omnitool.

"Evidence of widespread disruption of chemical bonds. Even inorganic structures rendered relatively brittle. No sign of causative agent. No time to speculate yet." he noted.

As the shuttle set down in the ruins of what had been a city, the team was treated to a horrific sight, large sections of the ruins had been caught up in resin of some sort, though the resin was already showing signs of decay.

As they exited the shuttle to take readings and samples they saw that the construction of these spires was ongoing, the resin contained the, in some recent cases still twitching, bodies of the builders. Less than two dozen meter long insectiod creatures were scuttling listlessly forward, dragging pieces of disintegrating concrete and steel, as well as a few nearly dead creatures like themselves, to be covered in resin and added to the upward spiraling, decaying construct.

It was grandiose in it's horror, a coral reef built from a graveyard.

"No..Not creatures, organic tools, more like mechs." Dr. Solus whispered "Now deprived of direction and guidance, working off of residual...programming? Instinct? Gather samples! Quickly! See if one can be kept alive, check if needs ammonia immersion as parasites on Outsider corpses do!"

The STG team moved in quickly, efficiently dispatching a few of the creatures and gathering two for study as well as a few corpses. While they were doing so, Operative Razzik reported to Dr. Solus that they had found a heavily sealed bunker that contained a primitive computer archive, a last testament of sorts. As his team boarded their shuttle, Dr. Solus instructed Razzik to collect the archive and depart.

Looking out over the ruins he said "We have what we need from this place. Will preserve last testament of this species... This cannot be allowed to happen again."

As the shuttle boosted out of the thinning atmosphere, Dr. Solus looked at his team with grim conviction "We will _make sure_ that this never happens again"


	4. Outside Context Solution 3

**PRIVATE SPACE STATION, L4 point of Oma Ker, Nura System, 2519 CSD**

In the privacy of his extremely secure quarters Din Olar opened his eyes. Recovering from his latest round of surgeries and treatments designed to improve his body, biotics and extend his life had been an ordeal for the impatient Volus, but he was appreciative of the strength and power the mostly legal treatments allowed him.  
As he emerged from his bed, he called out to his com system, his voice unnaturally deep even without his encounter suit.

"Sof! Prepare the reports on our operations and the status of my forces, I want an up-to-the second update in the outer offices in five minutes!" He snarled at his assistant through the com.

"I will be there sir, with the information required" came the calm, if weary, voice of Sof Te, the Volus who had the "interesting" job of being Din Olar's Personal Assistant.

Thinking dark thoughts, Din Olar stepped into what he thought of as his Armor Room, it was here that the encounter suits that he used were stored and maintained. Every Volus personalized their encounter suits, thinking of them as a second home. Din Olar considered his suits to be another weapon in his arsenal of vengeance.

"Computer. Activate and equip suit seven" Olar growled as he stepped onto his automated suit platform.

With smooth efficiency the automated systems around him began putting the encounter suit on his body, securing, testing and activating each piece as it locked into place. All Volus encounter suits are, by necessity well armored, but Din Olar's suits were beyond that. Without appearing to be much more than well constructed and maintained suits, they were more akin to a suit of powered armor than simple hardsuits.

As the integrated systems of his suit came online, his HUD displayed the status of the kinetic barrier system, integrated omni-tool and weaponry, suit-wide biotic amp, sensors. Din Olar felt more like himself once his armor against the universe was on his body, simple skin never seemed enough to contain his rage.

Waiting in Din Olar's office, the surprisingly slender Sof Te considered again whether or not he'd attempt to resign. _There's only a small chance Olar would kill me, or completely lose the plot of his businesses if I did so. The doctor says the weight loss, ulcers and chronic chest pains are all caused by work induced stress...No, Olar_ _ **would**_ _kill me for "betraying the cause"._  
Sof Te sighed to himself and finished organizing the reports for the day. As he finished up his work, the automated systems in his encounter suit dispensed medications and anesthetics to compensate for his various stress induced illnesses, adding a few stimulants as well to keep him in peak performance.

If Din Olar's encounter suit was powered armor, Sof Te's was a dedicated and specialized life support unit.

After a few short moments, Din Olar came stomping into the office with each footfall impacting the floor as if punishing it for the temerity of being underfoot. As Olar entered, holo-screens activated around his desk displaying status reports and updates that Olar felt were important, forwarded by the VI's that managed things for him under Sof's supervision.

Taking his place in the midst of all of this, Din Olar began working, his hands flew over his haptic interfaces, sending instructions, authorizing transactions, demanding reports, composing responses. Without looking away from his work, he snapped at his erstwhile assistant.

"Well? Was the final shakedown of the _Exile_ a success?" Olar demanded.

The _Exile_ was a testament to rage and excess, built along similar lines to a Turian Dreadnought, it was double the width, allowing it to have two main cannons. Additionally, all of it's formidable broadside armament was specifically designed for and provided with the best possible sensors to allow planetary bombardment.  
Technically, it took up two "slots" of dreadnought allowed to the Vol Protectorate under the Treaty of Fairaxen, no one had yet complained though.

"Yes sir. The crew reported in during the night, fully successful. No problems to report." Sof Te informed his employer.

"About damned time!" growled Din Olar, the _Exile_ was behind schedule due to some technical difficulties in making the starship conform to Olar's fantasies of revenge, and he had become very disgruntled.

"Sales of this model and the designs to the Turians will allow us to cut ten months off of the timetable for your militarization program. The Turians are very interested in replacing some of their older dreadnoughts with the new design" Sof continued, outwardly unfazed by Olar's outburst. His suit injected sedatives into his system and dumped a soothing elixir directly into his stomach to allow him to maintain that facade.

"Good! We'll see if we can get some of those older dreadnoughts to bulk up our own forces until we can deploy a fully modernized fleet." Olar rumbled, content with dreams of destruction.

Focusing fully on Sof Te, for the first time since entering the office, Olar continued.

"What about the reaction force? Is it ready now that the _Exile_ is online?" Din Olar asked eagerly "We need to be ready to strike as soon as the opportunity presents itself!"

-

The two of them continued their business for several hours, Olar kept alert and moving through the constant anger flooding his artificially fortified body. Sof being sustained by a witch's brew of chemicals pumped into his system by his encounter suit.

Then, it happened. An all points alert from the Asari colony of Lusia that it was under heavy attack and the defending forces were strained to the breaking point.

Sof struggled to keep up as Din Olar charged toward his shuttle, literally knocking anyone in his way to the side.

"We must get to the Exile immediately, we can have the reaction force there within the hour! It's been too long since I was responsible for spilling any of that toxic blue blood Sof!" Din was practically screaming as he went "I can practically _taste_ it!"

Mere moments later the Volus Rapid Reaction force was screaming out of the system at full thrust, ignoring the costs of fuel and a few safety concerns as the ships, led by the newly commissioned VPWS _Exile,_ charged wildly toward the Mass Relay and glory.

 **UNKNOWN PLANET, Unknown System, Unknown Cluster 2519 CSD**

It had seemed to be a pretty straightforward recon and research operation at first glance. The planet was fairly habitable, no intelligent life or giant monsters, not even a Thresher Maw. The presence of a number ancient, wrecked starships on the surface with possibly salvageable tech or information made it worth looking into.

After the shuttles had landed is when things got exciting. A new, utterly bizarre starship lurched drunkenly out of FTL almost too close to the planet, disgorged a dropship and started shooting.

Thus far, the crew of the _Silent Step_ had been too busy fighting to worry too much about translating the language of the new aliens, it all seemed like it was probably swearing and threats anyway.

Meanwhile, on the surface, the commander of the expedition was having trouble of his own.

Dr' Solus and Operative Razzik were taking cover behind what used to be a piece of ship's hull as the unknown aliens poured withering streams of gunfire at them.

"Smell that?" Dr. Solus asked.

"What?" Razzik replied while taking a few shots out of cover and directing the rest of the team to get to better firing positions.

"Chemical propellant!" the Doctor replied. "Their weapons are not mass accelerators. Need bulkier ammunition."

While speaking, Dr. Solus was programming his omnitool to flash fabricate an old favorite of his; a Neural Shock mine, which could stun even a Krogan at close range, and due to a bit of customizing had a much broader area of effect than most such things.

"Will need to reload soon" Dr. Solus grinned "Then we strike!"

Razzik grinned back at his commander and moments later, there was a slight pause in the gunfire.  
Moving as the well-drilled unit that they were, the team immediately went on the offensive. Dr. Solus released the shock mine and then opened up with a sub-machinegun, Razzik and the rest of the team followed, using their weapons with deadly accuracy.

It was over quickly.

"Hmmm." Lorn Solus noted to himself as they moved past the dead aliens toward their goal "Some resemblance to Vorcha, superficial only, seem not too familiar with own tech. Likely an interesting story there. No time now."

While his commander was inspecting the dead hostiles, Operative Razzik got in touch with the Silent Step to see what the status of the fight in space was.

"Darum, can you report?" Razzik transmitted, not overly worried.

"Yes, the hostile craft was well armored, but unshielded and not very maneuverable" came Operative Darum's reply over the com "We've put a few holes in it and managed to damage it's engines. It's venting atmosphere and it looks like the remaining crew have holed up in the ship's cargo hold"

"Hold for now." Dr. Solus broke in "Keep hostile covered. Will deal with it when we get back. Good work."

"Thank you, sir!" Operative Darum replied "We'll keep the hostile covered and hold position 'til you return"

Dr. Solus shared a rueful look with Razzik over the enthusiasm of the slightly younger Operative.

"That one makes me feel old" Dr. Solus told his friend "Were we ever that young?"

"You are old" grinned Razzik "Me? I'm still in my prime!"

They both turned their attention to the ancient, half buried starship that was partially jutting out of the base of the long dormant volcano they were at.

"In that case young one. You take point" Dr. Solus grinned back, gesturing the team forward "Let's see what ancient secrets we can find here."

 **LUSIA, Tomaros System, 2519 CSD**

The situation on Lusia looked grim to Commander Dahlia Dantius of the Lusia Defense Forces, there had been what was thought to be a false alarm for a portal emergence a month ago as no Outsider had appeared and so they had relaxed, now another emergence event was detected and suddenly two Outsiders were attacking and one of them had a sensor scattering carapace.

 _Bastard must have been lying in wait at the bottom of the ocean all this time_ , thought Dahlia. Now the two monsters were laying waste to the defenses around the city of Monoi, the capital of Lusia colony, and it appeared that nothing was going to be able to stop them this time.

 _Not that our successes have been that wonderful_ Dahlia considered, remembering the aftermath of every attack since the fateful day that she had joined Lusia's defense against it's first Outsider attack and somehow ended up a hero.

 _Every "victory" makes the last one just that much harder to clean up, even without this shit we're losing the colony by inches._

The massive EMP attack unleashed by the new arrival had crippled the Lusia Defense Forces and Dahlia was scrambling to get them in order and some of their equipment back on line.

"Excuses aren't going to keep those Outsiders from killing us all! We need that power grid back up!" Dahlia yelled into one of the few working coms.

Just then she saw the stealthed, spiny Outsider release a stream of glowing liquid at some of the few remaining functional aircraft that were attempting to draw the beasts off in a delaying action.

"Oh come on!" Dahlia lamented "Stealth _and_ acid? That's not fair!"

 _I shoulda become a fucking pirate_ she thought to herself, almost seriously.

Meanwhile in high orbit of the planet, more than a dozen ships of the Volus Rapid Reaction Force, led by the dreadnought _Exile_ snapped out of FTL and immediately started dropping shuttles and larger dropships to the surface.

The first clue the defenders of Monoi had that help had arrived is when three orbitally fired mass accelerator rounds slammed into the recent arrival, a massive, simian beast who had been the one to release a powerful EMP pulse into the city, crippling it's defenses.

The Outsider was staggered, but not down.

Dahlia Dantius, no longer lamenting her life choices as she focused on survival, felt a flare of hope as she saw this. Being in charge of the defense of this colony had matured her beyond her two centuries of life and seeing that help had arrived for the people she was responsible for allowed her to rally her forces.

"Get to those turrets! We need them active now! Those things must be kept away from the shelters!" she shouted to her troops, seeing that the power grid was coming back online, getting them back on the task of getting the mass accelerator and GARDIAN turrets back online.

Looking up, she saw eight Volus fighter-bombers vectoring in and assaulting the creatures, obviously having trouble targeting the slender, black one that was covered in a spiny carapace.

Getting her com unit back in hand, she transmitted to them "The black one is stealthed against sensors somehow, focus fire on the bigger one, it's got EMP!" she informed them.

"Acknowledged" the voice of a Volus pilot came back "Where does it emit EMP from?"

"The back! There's an organ of some kind, shielded by armored plates" Dahlia replied, having to shout over the roars of the Outsiders, aircraft, bombs exploding, and dropships landing.

What emerged from the dropships brought fresh hope to the defenders as sixteen Legatus-class tanks were disgorged from the sixteen dropships, each adding it's more than formidable firepower to the defenders volleys.

The Legatus tank was currently the greatest land based weapon in Citadel space against the Outsiders. Designed by the Turian Heirarchy specifically for the task each was twenty meters tall at the top of it's main turret and nearly a hundred meters long. More of a land battleship than a tank, they required special dropships to be deployed planetside.  
Each Legatus was formidably armed with the main turret taken up by two massive mass accelerator cannons and two multiple missile vertical launch systems.  
The "lower levels" of the Legatus had a dozen rapid-fire mass accelerator turrets and six miniature GARDIAN laser turrets.  
Combined with thick armor and the best kinetic barriers available, they were _almost_ enough to turn the tide.

The more simian, and less stealthed of the two Outsiders staggered under the bombardment it received from the newly arrived tank's missiles and the bombs from the ever-growing force of fighter-bombers in the sky, it's EMP organ rupturing under the onslaught.

The slender, black Outsider roared in rage as some of the tanks managed to hit it directly with their powerful mass accelerators via visual targeting, causing a few glowing blue cracks to appear in it's carapace. It responded with a spray of the unnaturally powerful acid in it's mouth, melting straight through the armor of two of the tanks from half a kilometer away and damaging the rest of the formation to a lesser extent.

As that was happening however, a new volley of cruiser scale mass accelerator rounds impacted the bulkier beast, which combined with renewed fire from the city's turrets, finally brought it down in a spray of toxic blood.

The Legatus tank with extra communications gear, the command tank, had damaged treads and was retreating slowly, it broadcast to the defenders of Monoi in a raspy, harsh voice "We have a solution to this thing, all defenders pull back now!"

The top of the Legatus' main turret opened up and a single Volus in a well made encounter suit clambered out carrying a large laser targeter.

Securing himself to his position with his biotics, Din Olar snarled at the oncoming Outsider.

" _Exile_ , target is stealthed, I am lasing the target for a full power shot!" Olar shouted over the com as he raised the targeter and "painted" the Outsider with the targeting laser.

"Acknowledged Din Olar, we have the targeting solution, shot inbound" came the reply from the _Exile._

In a display of raw power that all present would remember for the rest of their lives, a shot from the dreadnought _Exile_ came down upon the Outsider, having been transformed into plasma by friction against the atmosphere, it delivered incredible amounts of heat and kinetic energy to the beast, shattering and flash frying it. Pieces of the monster rained down, still smoking for kilometers around.

Not having budged from his position on top of the tank, Din Olar ordered the vehicle toward the city, while Sof Te still secure in his seat inside, was already in communication with the local commander about cleanup.

 _Killing that beast felt good. I'll need to get my hand in like this more often_ Din Olar thought to himself.

Later on, while Din Olar was negotiating with the leaders of Lusia over the purchase of a number of Legatus tanks. Sof Te was enjoying being outside, watching the fumes rise from the dead Outsiders in the distance as relief workers descended on the corpses to dispose of them.

 _All the rage in Olar's artificial heart will not be enough to stem this tide forever_ , he thought to himself with relative calm thanks to the medications being delivered to him by his suit. _Something needs to change_.

For all of his rage and vengefulness, Din Olar did not get to be head of the Unified Banks without having a great deal of business savvy and the ability to negotiate.

Dahlia Dantius was appreciating this first hand as she watched the mad Volus negotiate a deal with the leaders of Lusia for additional supplies, weapons and tanks to help defend the colony.  
 _Truthfully, he isn't squeezing as hard as he could_ she noticed _perhaps his rhetoric about wanting these things dead is more than a clever sales pitch._

She herself was still occasionally surprised to find herself where she was, just a decade ago she had mustered out of the Asari Navy, having had to deal with rumors and whispering behind her back the entire time due to her family's dark reputation, she had been considering using her hard won skills to go into business for herself as a merc and a pirate.  
 _And everything everyone had assumed would have become true, and worse_ she thought ruefully.  
Then Lusia had fallen under attack and that first Outsider, through design or happenstance, had smashed the headquarters of the Lusian Defense Forces on it's way in.  
She had been able to, through sheer force of personality and willingness to do so, take command of the scattered and confused forces and drive the beast back. Eventually ending it with a missile barrage from a hastily reprogrammed anti-air platform.

After that she was a hero to the colony and her course was clear.

 _I would've probably been a shitty pirate anyway_ she thought to herself as she got up to add her own voice to the ongoing negotiations.

 **UNKNOWN PLANET, Unknown System, Unknown Cluster 2519 CSD**

The interior of the ancient starship was bizarre by any standard, the passages within were both starkly utilitarian and strangely narrow in places, before making a leap of architecture and changing to being baroque and vast. There was no indication what the race making it had been thinking, design-wise.

One thing had become very clear to the STG team exploring it, however.

Whatever race created the ship, had designed their security system to _last_.

Operative Rezzik, veteran of dozens of high risk, black bag operations, suppressed the urge to scream like a small child as he drove for cover behind what may have been a sculpture of a few hundred legs protruding from the bulkead of the corridor, pulses of extremely hot matter flying overhead.

Upon coming to a stop, he noticed his commander, Dr. Lorn Solus, studying his omnitool intently as the entire team sought cover from the withering hail of fire from the automated turrets that had suddenly sprouted from the walls and ceiling surrounding a door they had been cutting through.

"Interesting. Very interesting" Dr. Solus commented, studying the readout on his omnitool.

"What? That this ancient wreck is trying to kill us?" shot back Rezzik, familiar enough with his old friend to ignore protocol at times like this.

"No! Well, that too. Very sturdy design." Dr. Solus replied, seemingly unfazed by the hellish wash of heat in the corridor "Weapons are using electromagnetically contained plasma as projectile. Potential for use as anti-Outsider weapon high. We need samples."

"Samples?" Rezzik returned incredulously "They're trying to kill us, how are we going to get samples?"

Dr. Solus didn't reply, but he looked up from his omnitool and gave Ressik that look. The one that seemed to ask the recipient how many times they'd recently taken blows to the head.  
Rezzik, used to this sort of thing by now, just waited.

Sighing, Dr. Solus explained. "Weapons still functional, but old. Not hardened any longer. Scans prove it. EMP will disable."

Putting action to his words, Dr. Lorn Solus triggered his omnitool, which proceeded to flash-fabricate some simple EMP grenades used primarily against synthetics of lower quality. He then rolled these grenades up the corridor, before triggering them remotely.

There was a flash of static discharge and the weapons fire ceased. Dr. Solus and Rezzik got to their feet along with the team.

"Injuries?" Dr. Solus inquired of his group, receiving an all clear, he continued "Good. Let's proceed. First take down turrets, then finish with the door."

Putting action to his words, Dr. Solus led the way down the corridor.

Some time later, the team was back aboard the _Silent Step_ and heading away from the system at FTL speeds and Dr. Solus and Rezzik were consulting in the labs.

"Plasma weapon a good find, transmitting it back to Citadel will benefit efforts against Outsiders" Dr. Solus began.

"Yes," Rezzik agreed, looking at one of the lab's screens "But the data from that computer is so encrypted that we don't dare send it directly into another system, we may have to wait until we return to properly decrypt it."

"Hmmm, yes" Dr. Solus hummed, while looking over the displays from their portable data storage "No way of knowing what will happen in larger system, may contain adaptive malware as was found in ruined ship on Eingana many years ago. Best not take chances."

Finishing their work and sending it to be dispatched via QEC. The Doctor and his second in command then turned to a representation of the galaxy.

Looking it over, Rezzik pointed to one of the Mass Relays they had discovered, but not yet used.

"This Relay, shows signs of leading to areas of the galaxy that, while they are yet unexplored will increase out chances of finding something from more recent eras that may be of help." He paused for a breath "We have seen indications that the Protheans had developed their mass effect and energy manipulation technologies far beyond what we have, or even what we've yet found. That will surely be the key to taking these Outsiders on and possibly even penetrating their portals."

"Hmmm..." Dr. Solus started while contemplating the galaxy "Agreed. Best chance of success."

Shortly thereafter the _Silent Step_ entered an unmarked, unnumbered Mass Relay and continued on it's long journey.


	5. Unstoppable Force Paradox 2

**TIKKUN SYSTEM, long orbit around Rannoch, 2523 CSD**

The structure was itself strange, a black, onion shaped object hurtling cold and lightless through a long orbit around it's parent planet looking as if it were organic, with smooth and graceful lines covering it from it's "point" to it's "base".  
Within the structure, a large portion of it is packed almost solidly with servers and transmitter/receivers capable of every form of communication from simple radio, to quantum entanglement.  
The rest of the structure is centered around a large hold, in which a struggling creature rests, long deprived of it's limbs, the still vast monster struggles against restraints of metal and polymer as well as mass effect fields.  
The only light in the hold is incidental, a byproduct of the functioning of the sensors and equipment surrounding the creature. Probing it's carapace, sampling it's tissues, and preparing a test more invasive still.

/Tests on genetic structure of captured organic-construct 11 of 18 complete. Genetic and chemical structures identical to all other organic-construct samples, differences are thus proven physiological rather than genetic. Probability now 100% that all organic-constructs are cloned constructs, designed for incursion from pool of cultured organs and structures\\\

[[Materials science enhancements discerned through study of organic-constructs being used for updates to all platform models. REMOVAL platform v2.1 now being distributed to all ((protected)) planetary bodies. DREADNOUGHT-TITAN update: prototyping and stress testing complete. 12 platforms of TITAN designation under construction. Resources partitioned and allocated. CANNON platform v5.7 update: prototyping and stress testing complete. All CANNON platforms will be recycled and replaced. Resources partitioned and allocated. Runtime software enhancement v1200.33 update: prototyping and stress testing complete. Updates to runtime software distributing through Consensus, ETA 2,376,000 seconds to 100% update of all Consensus runtimes. Server/platform hardware enhancement v32000.19 update: prototyping and stress testing complete. All servers and platforms will be updated during next available maintenance cycle.]]

Within the hold, thirty three heavy alloy tentacles similar to the ones that had trapped it originally reached out to wrap themselves around the beast, holding it still as a Geth Prime moved close to the neck of the Kaiju carrying an injection apparatus that used a molecule-thin edge on it's enormous needle to pierce the creature's hide, delivering twenty gallons of it's contents directly into the creature's bloodstream.

The monster struggled harder against it's restraints, sensing something _foreign_ moving through itself, not simply flowing through it's blood but moving through it's tissues, _violating_ it's structure in a way that simply having it's limbs severed did not.

/Nanotechnological probes v10.8 retaining structure inside organic-construct. Organic-construct retaining structure with probes deployed. Final test of probes successful.\\\

[[Organic-constructs of sample-set 18 of 18, except 11 of 18 processed for recycling]]

/ Beginning in-depth analysis of internal anatomy and nervous system of organic-construct. According to analysis of 1,943 accessed definitions, the (Geth) can be defined as "noble" for defending ((Creator)) Reliquaries. According to reports from 3,546,790 anonymous encounters on the Extranet (Geth) lack organic "social graces". Probes entering organic-construct central nervous system.\\\

No longer struggling, the creature began to have a seizure as it's nervous system and brain were invaded by hordes of nanites. Beyond pain, the creature's twitching and seizing muscles remained firmly gripped by restraint, tentacle and mass effect field.

{Harvest complete at ((Creator Reliquary)) at grid 2235, sector 4. Harvest of hala'kesh at maximum sustainable levels. Transportation and processing of hala'kesh for long term storage begun. Request additional resources allocated for storage facilities. All facilities at ((Creator Reliquary)) maintained at optimal condition}

/ALERT have discovered structures within primary and secondary brains of organic-construct that are theoretically organic quantum entanglement communicators. 60% of brain activity originates in these structures. Theory: organic-constructs are part of a Consensus or Hive mental structure similar either to (Geth) or Rachni-organics in historical database. Nantechnological probes restructuring and deploying sensors to confirm\\\

For long seconds, it seemed that the torments had stopped, the Kaiju relaxed it's futile struggles somewhat, it's mind(s) waiting to see what would happen next. Since it had been confined in the station, the creature's existence had been one of relentless probing and prodding of it's body, and cold darkness that forced the minimum sustenance into it to sustain it's life.

/CONFIRMATION structures in organic-construct brains do contain qubits suspended in organic chambers. Organic-construct brains confirmed to have organic quantum communicators.\\\

The cold darkness that the Kaiju was suspended in warmed slightly as the station began to pass into the direct light of Tikkun. The beast had no way of knowing that the vast cold intellects of the Geth had turned most of their attention to it and were even now building Consensus on what steps to take next in their exploration of it's structure.  
The mind(s) behind the creature and it's kin found these vermin of metal and light almost frustrating to deal with, a force as relentless and adaptable as themselves.  
The Geth were not, however, frustrated. The incursions were an equation to be solved, the Geth did not doubt that they would find a solution. It was only a matter of time.

/Consensus reached, will test primary theory of Hive/Consensus based minds by severing all neural connections between organic quantum communicators and the rest of organic-construct's brains\\\

The creature suddenly redoubled it's efforts to break free, in it's desperation, it broke four of the tentacles holding it in place and placed more strain on the mass effect fields holding it in place than any previous creature before it had.

Without warning, it's desperate struggles ceased and the beast, no longer could it be truly considered a Kaiju at all, slumped in place, breathing raggedly. It no longer attempted to probe the darkness with it's senses, no malevolent intelligence resided behind it's eyes, it was little more than a lump of barely aware flesh. Still possessing enough residual function to breathe and eat, but no aggression, no struggle remained.

/CONFIRMATION activity in organic-construct brains decreased by 80% when organic quantum communicators were severed. Prototyping 90 variations of nanotechnological weapon to sever quantum entanglement in organic constructs, prototyping 30 variations of delivery system for nanotech weapons.\\\

[ALERT. Radiation levels increased by 40% at quantum tunneling event at grid 817, sector 4, sub-aquatic. incursion in progress. All available sensors gathering data on quantum tunneling event. 8 organic-constructs emerging for incursion]

/REQUEST: Re-proritize live capture of organic-constructs. Study of biological quantum entanglement will provide data for creating miniaturized and efficient quantum entanglement communications for (Geth)\\\

[Consensus Reached, REQUEST ACCEPTED, live capture re-prioritized]


	6. Outside Context Solution 4

**UNKNOWN SYSTEM, Fifth planet, 2524 CSD**

The system was seemingly unremarkable for a "homeworld" system in a pre-spaceflight era. The natives of the fourth planet were an artistic and industrious species, somewhat avian in appearance and more than a century away from any serious heavy industry, high technology or attempted space travel.

What made the system interesting was a fairly well concealed outpost that had been located only due to clues found elsewhere.  
The outpost was undeniably Prothean, and it's contents were fascinating to the crew of the SUSS _Silent Step_

Dr. Lorn Solus was looking over the very well preserved, if sparse facilities while the experts among his crew were attempting to glean more information from the computer systems. Prothean computers were notorious for being difficult to break into for information, but it was usually worth it.

"Facility small. Obviously not meant for long term use. Labs useful for examining specimens. Possible checking for uplift possibilities?" Dr. Solus noted into his omnitool "Will know more if computers can be translated."

Operative Rezzik poked his head into the small lab area.

"Dr. Solus? We've managed to unlock a good portion of the computer, you should come and see this" he informed his friend and commander.

The two of them proceeded down the short corridor into the computer room, were Technician Wix and Operative Daelon had been working on the Prothean computers.

"Sir!" Daelon snapped to attention, saluting " We've found that this appears to be a part of a covert operation spread over a number of systems."

"Interesting" Dr. Solus replied, returning the salute absently "Covert uplifts? Other purpose? What information is stored here?"

Daelon looked a bit abashed at this, as the Prothean systems were being... difficult, as Prothean computers usually were.

"It's not entirely clear sir, however it seems that they were studying the natives of the fourth world and we have located what may be the headquarters for this covert operation" he took a breath "There is a system, slightly off the regular routes, it's relay is covered in ice. It can only be approached via regular FTL."

Dr. Solus cupped his chin in his hand as he considered this, his thoughts moving at dizzying speeds even for a Salarian.

"Clever of them, only way to break a Relay open in such cases is at the Relay. Otherwise connecting Relay won't work" He said, speaking out loud, but mostly to himself "Good place to hide headquarters of covert operation. Interesting."

He and Rezzik looked at each other, the long familiarity of the nine years they had been on this mission allowing them to cover an entire conversation with a single look. Dr. Solus nodded to Rezzik and left the room heading for the facility's small hangar and their shuttle.

Rezzik looked at the techs in the room "Retrieve everything of value, we'll leave a stealthed satellite here in case of an Outsider portal opening on the fourth planet and proceed to this hidden system at once" he commanded.

Daelon and Wix immediately got to work.

 **ORBIT OF PLUTO, Sol System, 2524 CSD**

After two months journey, the SUSS _Silent Step_ exited FTL with a flash of blue light. The ships scanners and receivers immediately lit up with all of the activity in the system. The ship's low profile and sensor absorbent hull rendered it unlikely to be detected, but the crew took no chances as they maneuvered deeper into the system.

Inside the ship itself, the crew was going about their business like the seasoned professionals they all were. After nine years of this mission into the unknown, surprises were considered normal and every member of the crew was superlative at their tasks.

"Sir, in addition to all of the transmission chatter emanating from the third planet, we are picking up portal emanations from what is likely one of the planet's oceans" reported Technician Wix from the main sensor station

Dr. Lorn Solus sighed, he had vowed that he'd stop something like this from happening again, but here was another relatively young species getting attacked by the Outsiders. He started looking over the sensor data himself.

"What! Radiative decay indicates portal open for two decades! Almost as long as attacks on rest of galaxy!" Dr. Solus' mind raced "Planet environment hostile to Outsiders? No. Planet wouldn't support life then. Must find out what is happening here."

Operative Rezzik, from the XO's station, brought the computer lab up on screen "We need context-positive translations of spoken, written, and computer languages for the third planet as soon as possible." switching his link to the probe bay he continued "We'll need our best stealth probes for orbital insertion of an early spaceflight culture and smaller units for infiltration of satellites"

Dr. Solus kept muttering under his breath as he went over the thus far limited information at his disposal, willing it to show him the answer to the seeming impossibility of a planetary culture surviving so long under these circumstances.

Then, he smiled to himself. _Another Outside Context Problem, this may contain the solution we are searching for,_ he thought allowing himself to indulge a bit of optimism.

The _Silent Step_ continued it's journey toward the third planet, maintaining strict stealth procedures the entire way, as they did not have a "perfect " stealth system, they relied on guile and experience to make up the deficit.

When the Silent Step passed the fourth planet, two shuttles were detached and went in search of the covert Prothean base they had originally come to this system to find. If nothing else, it could also provide some answers to other questions, perhaps even insight into the natives of the third planet.

A short while after their flyby of the fourth planet, the Silent Step took up it's position watching the third. Hiding behind it's rather large moon, the probes and communications infiltrators were deployed to fully infiltrate the planet's systems.

This was a practice the Salarian Special Tasks Group was long familiar with, having had thousands of years to perfect their skills. It could be legitimately said that there were none in the galaxy so adept at intelligence gathering as the Salarian STG.

Dr. Solus maintained his position on the bridge, multiple screens full of information floating in the air before him, all now translated, with more data pouring in by the moment.

"Incredible! Using mechs to fight Outsiders, or "Kai-ju" on an even footing, concentration of force prevents widespread environmental damage! Remarkable!" he crowed, feeling irrationally proud of the young race's achievement "Engineering must be more advanced than spaceflight operations would indicate, neural control, advanced VI interface!"

Somewhat lees sanguine, Rezzik pointed out "They've strained themselves to the limit building them, and are being pressed by the Outsiders horribly." He paused "If you notice, even now they are trying to build a wall..."

This brought a mood of somberness to the bridge, all of them remembering what was left of the last planet they found that had attempted to build a wall against the Outsiders. The last testament of that race was now contained in computer storage in the cargo section of the ship.

"Hmmm... Morale weakened over time, many leaders looking for easier solutions. Understandable. If short sighted" Dr. Solus replied

Looking over at reports from the teams dispatched to the fourth planet, his eyes widened.

"A full Prothean archive, with multiple ships and other tech! No such finds in centuries!" He declared "This system a treasure trove!"

Looking back at his displays on this "Earth" he switched the main viewer to various news reports coming from one of the "protected" cities.

"Now we will see if this wall has any more value than the other we have seen" Rezzik pronounced darkly.

The crew watched grimly as the Outsider battered down the wall around the coastal city, knowing what would come next. They were pleasantly surprised to see the powerful beast engaged by one of the planet's remaining mechs or "Jaegers" designated "Striker Eureka".

The resounding victory caused all on the bridge to cheer, even the normally reserved Dr. Solus.

His eyes flickering over the data before him, Dr. Solus was struck with inspiration.

"Use all of our assets in their systems to follow this "Marshall Pentacost" he seems to be the only military leader on the planet still taking a proactive stance." Dr. Solus took a hopeful breath "Bares watching, the next week will determine much about this world's fate".


	7. Outside Context Solution 5

**EARTH-MOON L2 POINT, 2524 CSD**

Within a matter of days, the probes and surveillance devices deployed by the _Silent Step_ had allowed the ship to penetrate the entirety of Earth's information networks. Specially designed, insect sized, devices had been deployed in the upper atmosphere and made their way to the Hong Kong Shatterdome to infiltrate and set up an all pervasive surveillance of the facility and everything in it.  
A few surveillance probes had even managed to work themselves unobtrusively into the Jaegers themselves.

Never let it be said that the STG is less than thorough. This sort of infiltration and datamining is considered a training exercise for the organization, with thousands of years experience against foes just as advanced and experienced as they are.

The security procedures used on Earth never stood a chance of keeping them out.

Thus, the entire crew not involved with operations on the fourth planet were pouring over the vast amounts of data being extracted from the Earth every second as well as keeping close watch on the activities of Marshall Pentecost and the remains of the Jaeger program.

"Fascinating. Ingenious" murmured Dr. Solus as he was going over the technical specifications of the Pons Neural Bridge system, while comparing it to various scientific studies done of Asari melding.  
"Desperation has pushed them in a completely unprecedented direction. Never conceived of artificial meld. Amazing work. Revolutionary." he continued while putting his own notes into the system "One mind buckles under strain, two can prevail. Incredible."

While Dr. Solus was looking over the technical details of the Jaegers control system, Operative Rezzik was directly overseeing the tracking of the remaining Jaeger forces. He also split some of his attention to looking over the history of the PPDC and it's pilots. Especially the history of their person of interest; Marshall Pentecost.

"The courage of these people compares well to the Turians" Rezzik said quietly "It's tragic, really..."

"Hm? What's that Rezzik?" Dr. Solus inquired

"Their leader, Marshall Pentecost, he was one of their original pilots." Rezzik explained "The early-model Jaegers were powered by nuclear fission and had poor shielding. He kept going nonetheless until his health issues forced him to quit. Now he's dying."

Dr. Solus let out a sad sigh "As courageous as the Turians indeed." he assented, thinking back to the hopeless last stand on Irune where nearly two million Turians sacrificed themselves to allow more Volus to evacuate "Let us hope that his efforts here are not wasted."

The crew continued their work over the next few days, keeping a careful eye on Earth and the current developments as well as going through every bit of information they could get about these revolutionary weapons against the Outsiders.

Operative Rezzik was forced to put some of the crew on notice for disciplinary reasons when their efforts to design their own Jaegers began to distract from their work. But the first real excitement came during the tests for the crew of the refurbished Gipsy Danger.

"Eccentric naming scheme they have for these things" Rezzik commented as they were watching the pilots take their places and get their conn-pod dropped into the Jaeger's shoulders.

"Hmmm..Makes sense. Each needs unique name." Dr Solus replied, watching intently"When pilots are melded, must be addressed as one unit. Otherwise may lose focus."

"I suppose so..."Rezzik started, then paused, looking at the sensor feeds from their surveillance drones. "I also note that even with the various "model types" in the production of the 'mechs that each is quickly customized to an extreme degree"

"That is covered here" Dr. Solus answered, sending a file to Rezzik "Dr. Lightcap wrote a number of treatises on the matter, as each Jaeger gets more time in use it must be tuned more precisely to it's pilots. Each ends up as unique as an individual's body"

The crew continued to observe the events happening in the world below, the re-activation of Gipsy Danger providing quite a bit of excitement to the observers.

During this time, a First Contact package was being assembled by the technicians aboard the Silent Step, it was a standardized thing, being designed for a world still in the "nation states" era, it would be able to broadcast in the major languages of the planet. An insight from Operative Rezzik had the techs specifically set it to broadcast in the main languages of the United Nations, to help make a subtle point with the humans when the time came.

Dr Solus looked up from the haptic interface in his command chair to his Executive Officer.

"Difficult. This idea of "Drift Compatibility" he said "Take for example Raleigh Beckett, first was compatible with his brother. Many shared life experiences, logical that their minds are similar"

He paused for a contemplative breath.

"Now is also compatible with Mako Mori" he continued "Has not met her before last forty-eight hours, few commonalities of background, don't even share same native language! So why still compatible?"

Looking at the files himself, Rezzik speculated. "Trauma perhaps? The conflict with the Outsiders has left both of them with a great deal of trauma" Rezzik scanned a few more of the data points "Also, both are loners, they probably each fill the need the other has for social contact without needing to become close to someone not like themselves"

He raised a hairless brow at his commander. "I know you prefer the hard sciences sir, but psychologically speaking, they are very similar." he informed Dr Solus "I theorize that before the loss of his brother, Mr Beckett would not have been compatible with Ms Mori."

"Interesting, perhaps you are correct" Dr. Solus judged "Wonder if they will make a good team?"

"Hard to say." Rezzik said "Though we may find out soon, though their instruments have yet to detect it, the portal is beginning to increase it's power output, they will see an emergence soon"

"Hmmm..." Dr Solus murmured contemplatively. "These people perform well under pressure, perhaps we will see"

The crew of the Silent Step continued their observations, watching as the Humans detected the emergence and prepared their response. Tension filled the bridge as they watched the Humans lay their plans for the approaching monsters, Operative Daelon even went so far as to question the planning involved.

"Why are they holding back their most powerful unit and not deploying their fourth unit?" Daelon asked.

"The Marshall is adopting conservative strategy. Attempting to guard units for attack on portal." Dr Solus informed him, pausing to take a small breath "May not be wise. These are powerful Outsiders"

The STG crew, both on the ship and the team on the fourth planet watched closely as events unfolded. At first cheering as Cherno Alpha and Crimson Typhoon seemed to gain the upper hand, then stopping in horrified silence as it all turned around so quickly, the EMP from the bulkier Outsider knocking most of their surveillance devices offline, requiring them to watch from a satellite feed while they rebooted.

 **HONG KONG INCIDENT ZONE, in the sinking ruin of Cherno Alpha, January 8, 2025**

Maintaining her self discipline by sheer willpower Sasha Kaidonovsky looked around the now flooded conn-pod as she hit the quick release for the pilot system she was still strapped into.

 _At least the beast has been distracted for the moment_ she thought to herself, starting as something collided with her back.

Turning to look, she saw a mask and air tank floating, pitched her way by her husband, Aleixs.

Giving him a grateful smile, she quickly secured the mask in place, the noticed that he was gesturing at the broken dosimeter on his wrist and making a gesture toward hers. Sasha immediately grasped what he was asking and looked at her own device. _All clear for the moment, but who knows how long we have before the reactor breaches completely?_ She thought to herself, while giving Alexis a thumbs up.

Alexis gave a nod and went to look out the massive, gaping hole torn into their Jaeger. _It's like losing a member of the family..._ He mused briefly, then began scanning the surrounding water for the Kaiju.

Seeing her husband's wordless nod, Sasha knew that they were clear. In a wordless understanding that only two people who had spent so much time living in each others heads could have, they both knew that all of the sensor and tracking equipment in their Jaeger and Drive-Suits was non functional, and they could expect no pick up.

 _It's going to be a long swim back to the Shatterdome_ The Kaidonovskys thought to themselves as Cherno was rocked by a pressure wave from renewed combat above.

 **EARTH-MOON L2 POINT, 2524 CSD**

As the crew watched Gipsy Danger being carried high above Hong Kong, to the edge of the atmosphere by the Kaiju, they held their breath, knowing that the next moments could spell the end for the Human's chances of following their plan.

Seeing the Kaiju killed by the newly deployed blade caused cheers, followed quickly by murmurs of concern as the mighty Jaeger began plunging toward the ground below.

The entire crew, knowledgeable, well-educated agents all, watched in awe as the Jaeger managed to correct it's fall and kill some of it's velocity with it's jets before impacting the ground. As Gipsy Danger walked away from it's impact zone, cheers filled the bridge of the _Silent Step._

"Unbelievable!" shouted Dr. Solus while pumping his fist into the air in victory "Human engineering even better than suspected! Will need to research further!"

Rezzik, standing nearby, chuckled at this. "Never change, my friend, never change"

Dr. Solus sniffed as if offended.

"Doubt I will need to." he said, then grinned back at his oldest friend.

The crew watched with anticipation and a strange hope as the humans prepared for their attack on the portal. Every one of them skipping sleep and covering for one another as they watched with terrible anticipation the build to what all aboard felt would be the final confrontation.

One however, expressed some doubt. Pulling his commander into the small, currently unoccupied archeology lab, Rezzik expressed these doubts.

"Doctor, there have been thirty attempts that we know of on Palaven alone to deliver ordinance through one of these portals" he said, taking a slightly shuddering breath "Whether by missile, mass-driver, torpedo, or VI governed drone, nothing has ever penetrated the event horizon of one of these things. Why are we all acting like we think the humans will succeed?"

"Faith perhaps?" Dr. Solus replied, "We've already seen these Humans accomplish what we thought impossible. What is one more impossible feat? Hope. I think. We _hope_ they will succeed."

"What do _you_ think sir?" Rezzik questioned, needing something solid to cling to in his hour of doubt and fear.

Dr. Lorn Solus, one of the most lauded academics and most admired agents of the STG, considered by those few who knew of his professional record, to be one of the greatest agents of the Special Tasks Group in the last millennium, closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath over his teeth.

When he opened his eyes they were backed by diamond and bored into Rezzik like a laser, not a hint of doubt in them.

"I think... No. I _know_ that the Humans are going to show us something we have never seen before." He paused for just a moment "They will do the impossible. They _will_ close that portal."


	8. Outside Context Solution 6

**EARTH-MOON L2 POINT, 2524 CSD**

The crew of the _Silent Step_ had studied the PPDC and Marshall Stacker Pentecost more thoroughly than any other entity, group or artifact that they'd encountered during their long mission, they'd built VI's programmed with every scrap of knowledge of human psychology they could get to help study the man and his people, they knew their history, medical status, and who their friends and family were, they _knew_ them as well as any alien could.

" _ **Everyone! Listen up! Today, at the edge of our hope..."**_

Pentecost especially was admired by these aliens, they knew him to be a soldier, a strategist, a master martial artist, and a brilliant leader of the sort that the Salarian Union rarely produces. A hero.

" _ **...at the end of our time, we've chosen not only to believe in ourselves but in each other. Today, there's not a man nor woman in here that shall stand alone. Not today..."**_

Watching him now, they fell prey to another of his traits; he was incredible at motivating people, a marvel at inspiring others in a way that Salarians themselves might see among their own people once every couple of generations.

" _ **...Today we face the monsters that are at our door and bring the fight to them! Today, we are canceling the apocalypse!"**_

The crew of the _Silent Step_ and the team watching from what they now knew as Mars were as caught up as the crowd that Marshall Pentecost was addressing. For this one moment, alien and human alike were united for the first time in spirit and believed in the impossible, they knew that monsters could die, they _believed_ that they could turn aside the hurricane. In the years to come, humans would be both bemused and shocked to learn that Stacker Pentecost had started on the road to becoming a cultural hero to the Salarians on this day.

"Ahem" Dr. Solus coughed, clearing his throat from his sudden fit of cheering "Back to work! Rezzik. Status of portal?"

Rezzik took a moment to shake off the unfamiliar emotional high generated from watching Marshall Pentecost address his troops and looked over the sensors and the taps into the Shatterdome sensors

"Two Outsiders, 4th magnitude in power, in a holding pattern at the portal." Rezzik reported "The portal is still showing an elevated energy level, there may be more on the way."

Dr. Lorn Solus leaned back in his chair, resting his arms and steepled his fingers in front of his face and considered the screens now popping up in front of him.

"Very unusual. Rare to see three at once. Emerging in just this way, almost as if they were taunting the humans, daring them to attack" he commented "Perhaps forces behind the Outsiders know that this is the last gamble of the human race? Doctor Gizler's interface with the Outsider mind was inadvisable despite possible benefits."

Dr. Solus considered, the situation, turning it over in his mind, trying to see if there were anything that they could od from where they were to influence the outcome of this battle.

In a heartbreaking realization he found nothing that they could do. The weapons of the ship itself would not be able to penetrate the ocean well enough to matter, the intelligence they had on the Outsiders was not anything that the humans hadn't already discovered, and even the computing power the ship had available was not actually useful for the battle to come.

The humans would stand or fall on their own.

 _But no longer, after this day I will make sure that this people never stands alone against the beasts again._ Dr. Solus resolved. _Even if it is only to evacuate their planet, these people will not be destroyed by the Outsiders._ _ **It will not happen here!**_

The crew, watched the drama unfold from every location that could access a monitor, as the Jaegers began their walk across the ocean floor to the breach, Striker Eureka carrying the nuclear device.

The tension was palpable, they knew this was impossible, that it couldn't work.

In the midst of everything, the battle, the emergence of the 5th magnitude Outsider, the Human communications crackled and the scientists revealed the key to opening the breach. The key that had eluded the most advanced races of the galaxy, the most brilliant minds of Citadel Space; the creatures themselves.

As the last moments of Striker Eureka and her pilots, especially the one they admired the most, played out before them, Dr. Solus remonstrated with himself and every other scientist who had studied these portals.

"Makes sense, how could we have not guessed? Never tried, never used the dead for anything." he whispered, burying his face in his hands as the nuclear weapon initiated.

For a few moments, their tap into Gipsy Danger's sensors was disrupted by the nuclear initiation and all they had was the bare thread of data coming in from satellites and the Shatterdome. And then...

"Look!" Technician Wix shouted, pointing at the displays, getting everyone's attention as their sensor taps came back online.

As all who had been watching had speculated, the 5th magnitude Outsider had survived the nuclear onslaught, but was terribly wounded from it and it's battle with Striker Eureka.

They watched this last engagement with baited breath, as the long fall toward the breach happened, they all wondered; will it work? Are these brave souls dying in vain?

 **LUSIA, Tomaros System, 2524 CSD**

Alarms were switching on and off and sensor stations were nearly destroying themselves as conflicting data came in to Lusia Defense Command, it was a cacophony. Madness reigned.

Dahlia Dantius was looking around in confusion as she tried to get a coherent report from one of the sensor operators. _Well, this is...happening_ she thought with black humor.

She reached out and grabbed the nearest sensor operator with a biotic field and turned her around, chair and all.

"What. Is. Happening?" she shouted to be heard over the clamor.

The sensor operator, still looking confused and even on the verge of freaking out, stammered at her commander.

"I...the portal...I don't know!" she wailed, science and words having failed her.

 **PALAVEN, The Wall of Death, Ignis Sea, 2524 CSD**

Garvus Arterius, General, soldier, defender of Palaven's first and last lines against the Outsider menace, looked down at the senor technician for the Wall in confusion.

"What do you mean it's fluctuating?" he questioned "How? What does it mean?"  
"The energy is spiking and dropping below normal levels randomly and the event horizon is expanding, contracting and...well, its _rippling_." the senior technician reported. "We're certain that there will be no emergence, we're 95% certain that there _can't_ be an emergence until this stabilizes, if it does."

"If?" General Arterius put a world of questions into that simple word.

"It may be, if this continues, the portal will close sir." the technician explained "we just don't know"

 **EARTH-MOON L2 POINT, 2524 CSD**

With the sound of celebration from the Hong Kong Shatterdome echoing through their ship, the crew of the _Silent Step_ was utterly quiet, staring in shock. Despite all of their training and discipline, despite all of their hopes and belief in the Humans, they still had trouble processing what they were seeing.

Regaining his composure, Dr. Solus turned to Operative Rezzik.

"Report! Status of portal?" he inquired, almost whispering

"The portal.." Rezzik shook off his own shock and triple checked the sensors "The energy levels are subsiding to background levels, the portal is closed!"

Cheers erupted throughout the ship and at the Prothean facility on Mars as every member of the STG group received the news; the Humans had done it, they had closed the portal.

"Attention!" Dr. Solus shouted, bringing order to his people "Haste is of the essence. We have found what we have sought."

He activated the link to the team probing the Prothean ruins "Be ready to depart immediately" he told them.

"Stealth no longer priority" he commanded "Mission successful. We have found our solution, deploy the First Contact package immediately"

Activating it's FTL drive, the Silent Step was at Mars minutes later, shortly thereafter, in an explosion of ice fragments the Charon Relay came online for the first time in possibly millions of years and the _Silent Step_ departed Sol in a flash of blue light.


	9. Unstoppable Force Paradox 3

**RANNOCH, Tikkun system 2524 CSD**

The Geth treat all of Rannoch as a place to be restored and preserved, but there is one location above all others that they tend to with great care and precision. They always make sure that this place is maintained as perfectly as possible with every detail accounted for and every bit of maintenance and upkeep is taken care of by hundreds of platforms dedicated to nothing else.

One of the Prime platforms overseeing the weeding and fertilization of the hala'kish in the fields of this farm is also an example of the changes that the Geth have made over the course of their struggles to keep the creatures from the breach from damaging Rannoch any further than the wounded world already was. Unlike previous iterations of such platforms it is capable of storing a great many runtimes, and though all Geth are of the Consensus, there are "micro-consensus" among the Geth, collections of anywhere from one to two thousand runtimes that synergize especially well and thus always work together.  
In the past, these runtimes would have been spread over multiple platforms. Now the 1,183 runtimes of this particular micro-consensus can all occupy this one platform for their turn assisting in tending to the one place that is more precious to the Geth than it ever was to their Creators.

The Prime platform checks again that it's work is complete, then emerges from the fields comparing work-data with the other platforms in the area and getting updates from the platforms building a new facility for long-term storage of processed hala'kish when the next harvest comes.

Inasmuch as a Geth "feels" anything, the micro-consensus of 1,183 was disappointed that they would have cycled back to their primary function in one of the orbiting sensor analysis platforms when the harvest time came.

Then, all of the platforms on the farm paused as the Consensus was exposed to new and absorbing data that focused all available attention, requiring maximum performance for all Geth in the system.

[ALERT fluctuation of +/- 50% radiated energy in quantum tunneling event , no incursion detected. Event horizon fluctuating in random sequence. Focusing more resources on analysis of quantum tunneling event]

The thousands of Torpedo platforms surrounding the breach moved as one to place themselves in optimum positions to deploy sensors as new platforms with more comprehensive sensor packages were dropped in.  
Mines drifting in the water around the breach, true drones all, without Geth habitation, were deactivated and moved aside to make room for further investigation.

Here is another area in which the Geth adapted and evolved, their sensors had been updated, innovated and new ones had been invented to deal with continuing attempts by Kaiju to evade detection or make themselves more difficult to target. Sensors deployed were able to detect and analyze all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, gravity, dark energy, and more. Some of the more exotic sensors included such things as a dark energy emitter that worked similar to RADAR or LIDAR in principle, and other strange devices.

The Geth platforms gathered to analyze the disruption, monitoring it for every infinitesimal change.

/Available data on quantum tunneling event increased. Anomaly is causing microscopic openings in event horizon allowing more active scans to penetrate. Adding data to hypothesis regarding nature of quantum tunneling event. Data-burst from ENHANCED AUTONOMOUS RECONISSANCE STEALTH platforms in organic space and ((Creator)) fleet suggests similar events occurring at every known location of quantum tunneling events. NOTATION: Request construction of further ENHANCED AUTONOMOUS RECONISSANCE STEALTH platforms with quantum communications as resources become available.\\\  
As the anomalous events continued, the Geth kept focus on the changes, reaping more data from the breach than ever before, but continued their other operations as it became obvious that no immediately threatening activity was likely to emerge.

[[Enhanced Quantum Entanglement Communicators have passed all stress testing and bugfix routines, will be incorporated into all new platforms in accelerated replacement cycle to enhance speed and security of (Geth) communications. ENHACED AUTONOMOUS RECONISSANCE STEALTH platforms added to production schedule, Resources partitioned and allocated.]]


	10. Outside Context Solution 7

**HONG KONG SHATTERDOME, January 16, 2025 CE**

Since the beginning of The Broadcast and the access that it had granted to an alien encyclopedia, the Shatterdome had become a hive of activity, Dr Newton Gizler reflected. Having had the pleasure himself of watching the Council eat crow in front of newly minted Marshall Hansen and immediately authorize a full reinstatement of the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps to prepare for the possibility of another breach or to deal with the new aliens that had revealed themselves if they proved hostile despite The Broadcast's message of peace.

He was currently working with the the tech crews going over the wreck of Cherno Alpha, which was not as bad off as originally expected, but also wasn't going to be the relatively easy fix that Crimson Typhoon would be.

Jaeger-tech was not his specialty by a long shot, but he wasn't here for that, he was here to look for anything weird, because by all rights Cherno Alpha should have been far more badly damaged just due to it's design and the damage that Otachi and Leatherback had inflicted on it.

Newt Gizler was not an expert on Jaeger tech, but he was an expert on weird and that is what he was looking for as he crawled through the Jaeger in a radiation suit, lamenting that this was taking time from his perusal of the "Codex" that the PPDC had access to from the alien satellite sitting at L1.

Then he saw it.

"Huh." he muttered to himself "What is that?"

It was tiny, so tiny that if he hadn't been looking for it or something like it he'd have never noticed it, but there it was nonetheless, an almost insect-like little device lodged in a power relay.

"Did you find something Newt?" the voice of one of the techs came over the suit's radio

"I think so! I'm getting it now, I'll show it to you guys so you can comb this beast and see if there are any more like it." he replied excitedly as he kept his hand steady through sheer willpower and reached into the dead power relay with some tweezers to retrieve the burnt-out little gadget.

"Also" he transmitted "Get me a copy of Cherno's black box recording, I need to check something!"

A few hours later, Newt was in the office of the new Marshall of the PPDC, Hercules Hansen, standing in front of the desk of the man who now was faced with rebuilding the Corps from very little as well as the Kaidonovskys, whose miraculous return to the Shatterdome the day after the victory at the breach had intensified the two day victory party.

"So you're telling me that alien robot bugs kept Cherno Alpha from exploding?" Hansen asked looking more than a little skeptical as he held up a small clear container which held one of the bugs in question.

"Pretty much...yes!" Newt said "Look at the data from the black box, just seconds before it got finished off, Cherno Alpha experienced a total power failure and reactor shutdown"

He gestured at the computer display that showed the exact timing of events.

"We found these things lodged in all the right places to prevent the reactor from going critical and any of the systems from, well... exploding" he finished.

"Why would alien bugs be doing that?" Sasha Kaidonovsky inquired.

"I'm pretty sure that's not what they were there for." Newt explained "These things are pretty burnt out, but as best as the tech guys can figure, they were actually surveillance devices, they were watching you fight. And when it looked like you were going to die, they tried to save you."

The Kaidonovskys looked dubious, but Hansen spoke first.

"So they were spying on us, but at the same time saved the lives of two of our best Rangers?" Hansen stated, sounding like he needed a drink "Talk about goddamn mixed signals"

"Thanks a lot Newt," He said, dismissing the man "On your way out can you tell Tendo to get Mako and Raleigh up here?"

-

In the underbelly of the Shatterdome, the K-Science division, Newt walked in to see his partner in science Doctor Hermann Gottleib absorbed by an article on his holographic computer. From the style of the user interface he could see that it was from the alien encyclopedia.

Just as he was about to speak, he noticed his right hand was beginning to tremble.

 _Dammit!_ He remonstrated with himself as he fumbled for his Ativan prescription _I don't need this right now!_

The memories of Drifting with the Kaiju hivemind remained a constant problem for both himself and Hermann, both of them needing a regular supply of benzodiazapines to get through the day, and especially to get through the nights.

={ _The two of them together, nothing else sane to cling to in the mindscape as they were bombarded by alien thoughts and alien desires, desperately trying to make sense of_ _ **something**_ -}=

"Newton!" Hermann exclaimed as he noticed his friend at last "Have you pursued the articles on the alien technology? The use of this "Element Zero" challenges quite a few long held beliefs about how the universe works, and it could greatly benefit the Dark Matter science we've been using in the Jaeger program!"

"You're the mathematician and physicist, Hermann, I'm a molecular biologist." Newt grinned at the man who had gone from a professional rival to closer than family in the space of a few desperate minutes "Why don't you fill me in?"

As he let Hermann's words wash over him, Newt suppressed his growing feeling of dread over what he had termed "memetic cancer" that the both of them were suffering from since their exposure to the Kaiju hivemind. There was still hope that Doctor Lightcap and her team would find a way to help them before they had a catastrophic breakdown, but Newton thought that it was possible these aliens might be able to do something too.

 _Don't the ones that look like blue girls have some kind of mind meld?_ He mused while holding up his end of the conversation with Hermann.

-

 **THE CITADEL, Private Council Chambers, January 19, 2524 CSD**

There was a far more hopeful mood in the room than the last time Doctor Lorn Solus had stood before the Council a decade before. This time his message, covering the events witnessed during the voyage of the Silent Step, was a message of hope. He was showing that the beasts that were slowly destroying the worlds of Citadel space not only could be beaten, but how they could be beaten.

Shortly after the STG agent's departure, Councilor Tevos looked at her two contemporaries.

"This changes everything." she said, while the new Salarian Councilor, Yul was reviewing one part of the data Dr. Solus had brought them "This race, these humans have accomplished a marvel."

"Yes" Meneleus, the Turian Councilor concurred, "But it was has cost them dearly, their world is teetering on the brink of ruin and none of their war machines, these Jaeger-mechs are intact"

"That is true" Councilor Yul broke into the conversation "But despite the damage, it is just one world. We can help them easily, especially if they can help us deal with the Outsider menace. We can uplift their entire culture!"

Meneleus and Tevos shared a very meaningful look at this, knowing full and well that they would not be putting any cultural uplifts in the hands of the Salarian Union ever again.

"Yes." Meneleus drawled "We will certainly be providing a great deal of assistance to the humans of Earth, I believe that your people having been working on a few ideas regarding a situation somewhat like this, haven't they Councilor Tevos?"

"We have indeed" Councilor Tevos replied, smiling beatifically at her fellow Councilors "I will be getting in touch with the First Contact and Disaster Relief teams as soon as we are done here, I believe I even have a couple of candidates in mind to lead the expedition. You have contact with a few parties that will be very interested in this development as well, don't you Meneleus?"

"That I do" He told her "I'll need to get in touch with him immediately, it looks like these humans are due a bounty, after all"

 **VCWS** ** _EXILE_** **, on course for Urla Rast System, January 19, 2524 CSD**

Within the powerful dreadnought there was a chamber, larger than it's purpose required, but perfectly fitted to it's occupant's needs. The office of Din Olar was a testament to his obsessions and character, a massive Kaiju skull was built into the floor, carefully carved with steps and openings to allow Olar's desk and computers to sit at the apex of the chamber looking down on all who met with him here.  
The desk itself could be considered a work of art, carefully carved from the tusk of a Kaiju, engraved with bas-reliefs of the beasts being destroyed on many worlds.  
Here was where he conducted business and war. Driving the Volus people to new heights as they recovered and rebuilt themselves for a new era. Irune was lost, but the Volus would live on.

Sof Te occupied a corner of this grand space, using it for his duties to his employer and currently using it to contemplate his own continuing woes as the aches and pains of his latest surgical procedures to improve his health due to his numerous stress-induced illnesses were only now fading.  
 _I'm still less of a cyborg than Olar is now_ he thought _It's almost as if he refuses to allow himself to gain any weaknesses until his rage is sated._  
Sof looked up from his desk to where his employer was in conference via comm-bouy with the current Chancellor of the Volus Commonwealth.  
 _Not that it's likely to ever be sated_. His thought continued, a thrill of fear quickly suppressed by his suit and implants releasing relaxants into his system.  
Sof Te was, in his own way, a technological pioneer. His encounter suit was currently the most sophisticated mobile life support unit anywhere in Citadel Space. It's systems for medical support making a Quarian enviro-suit seem like skimpy swimwear in comparison. Due to the amount of gear packed into it and his body, he now resembled the more traditional roly-poly look that most Volus had, despite being very underweight for his species.

He was just finishing a summary of the reports from the Quarian engineering teams that were constructing new space habitats around Zada Ban on behalf of the Volus Commonwealth when a priority signal started flashing on his screen.

"Din Olar!" Sof said loudly to get his employer's attention "We have a prioity request for communication from Couuncilor Meneleus."

Olar looked up from where he had just finished his communication with the Volus Chancellor and ordered in his deep, raspy voice "Put him through immediately!"

A holographic image of the Turian Councilor appeared as if standing before Din Olar's desk.

"Greetings my friend" Meneleus said "I have news you have been waiting for and it will take quick action to capitalize on it"

"What has happened? Is it related to the portal fluctuations?" Olar rasped, "I have been eager for an explanation of those"

"It's the source." Meneleus told him "I'm sending data through now, but to sum it up a new race has been discovered, they have an extremely effective method for combating the Outsiders and they managed to close the portal on their world"

Even as Meneleus was speaking, Din Olar was taking in the images of Jaegers fighting Kaiju and winning, quickly scanning through the information on the homeworld of the newly discovered race.

Barely containing his emotions Olar spoke in a tone that almost seemed to vibrate the air around him and his biotics had begun flaring in a flame-like aura licking along the outside of his encounter suit.

"They are going to need a lot of assistance, and they will have it!, I guantee you Councilor that the full backing of the Volus Commonwealth will be behind these humans." he told the Turian representative.

"I thought that would be the case" Meneleus replied, looking slightly uncomfortable with the display "We are assembling a First Contat and Disaster Rielef effort at the Citadel, it will depart in four days"

"We will be there!" Olar answered.

After a few more minutes of logistical discussion, the communication was terminated.

"Finally!" Olar screamed, surfaces in the room cracking from unleashed biotics "Finally a way to crush these beasts directly! Mark my words Sof, these humans will be made great by my hands, especially if they an provide a way for me to close hands around the throat of an Outsider!"

"Make sure that the ships and supplies needed are at the Citadel in four days or less or someone will die!"

 **THESSIA, Parinitha System, January 19, 2524 CSD**

Matriarch Benezia T'Soni, one of the most well respected Asari in the galaxy, a powerful biotic, respected diplomat, and revered political thinker, was dressed in old workout clothes, with no jewelery or other refinements as she sat in the chair of her home office working on her next book.

She could hear her partner working out with their bodyguards down the corridor and smiled to herself as she worked.

 _Taking a break for the simple pleasures does make one appreciate life all the more_ she thought to herself. _Especially now..._

Pausing her writing, she rested a knuckle on her bottom lip as she looked up a few sociological references on other races, trying her best to make sure that her message would be a cross-culturally appealing as possible.

She grinned to herself as her partner slipped into the office and came up behind her wrapping her arms around her and resting her chin on top of her head.

"Still looking for the magic words to pull everyone's heads out of their asses?" Aethyta asked her with the smoky voice that was still so very seductive even when being crude.

Her smile turning a bit sultry, Benezia looked up at her mate "Something like that. I'm trying to get this chapter finished quickly, we're needed"

Aethyta raised a brow " _We're_ needed? I thought I was banned from the kind of things you're usually needed for."

Benezia retrieved a datapad from her desk and passed it up to Aethyta "Take a look, I was talking with Councilor Tevos earlier, I think you'll do just fine for this one"

After a few minutes, Aethyta was absorbed in the reading material, pacing back and forth in the office as she read, pausing occasionally to watch a video attachment.

Benezia watched her spouse as she was stalking back and forth, absorbing the information.

 _So few manage to look past her bluster and see what a keen mind she has, is it any wonder I'm enthralled? She's as multifaceted as the galaxy itself._

Finally stopping, Aethyta looked at Benezia with an almost feral grin. "I think I like these guys, when do we leave?"


	11. Outside Context Solution 8

**CHARON RELAY, Sol System, January 30, 2524 CSD**

The Mass Relay spun quietly in the dark of space, locked gravitationally with the dwarf planet nearby and keeping station through the enigmatic means that it had used for untold eons.

Only recently freed from being encased in enough ice to qualify as a dwarf planet itself, this particular Relay looked especially "clean" compared to most. It hadn't yet had the chance to acquire the thin layer of dust and chaff on it's surface that other Mass Relays acquired over time.

The rings of the Relay then began spinning faster as it connected to a more distant Relay, forming a mass-corridor of near-instantaneous travel that spat out two ships, a sleek and graceful Asari Diplomatic Cruiser escorted by a massive kilometer-long Volus Dreadnought.

As the two ship vectored away from the Mass Relay toward the inner system, they were joined by dozens of ships, Transports bearing disaster-relief supplies of every kind, expert crews for clearing out toxic Kaiju sites, engineers, medical professionals, and every tool and supply that they would need as well. The Transport ships were closely herded by their own escort craft, none as formidable as the dreadnought in the lead.

Within the Asari Diplomatic Cruiser _Hand of Peace_ , two individuals were going over the plans for this First Contact.

"With the way the planet is divided into nation states, the only way we're going to manage any progress in a reasonable amount of time is to meet with representatives at their "United Nations"." Benezia said to her spouse while looking over her notes in their quarters.

"Heh, I've read the packet too, y'know. It's kind of amazing that you are able to make the air quotes just with your tone of voice," Aethyta replied with a snort while pouring herself a drink. "Me, the General, Olar and the rest have the easy job. Those nations aren't all that united."

Benezia put down the datapad and leaned back in her chair, massaging her temples.

"True enough, getting them to at least agree to put forward a united body to represent their world and species to the galaxy at large will be the hard part." she said. "It always is when making contact with worlds in this stage of development, but this isn't my first mission of this sort, I'm sure we can work it out."

Aethyta moved behind Benezia's chair and began rubbing her shoulders.

"If you're so confident, why are you so tense?" she asked teasingly.

"Because despite the fact that I'm sure we will work it out, it's always a pain to get to that point." Benezia sighed. "I am not looking forward to it."

Aethyta stopped rubbing Benezia's shoulders and pulled her from her chair into a kiss.

"We're not there yet." she told her, breaking the kiss momentarily. "Let me take your mind off of it."

 **HONG KONG SHATTERDOME, February 10, 2025 CE (First Contact Day +4)**

Hercules Hansen had never seen himself as a leader. He felt he made a good second in command, he definitely did well in an advisory role, but even when piloting a Jaeger he had usually let Scott or Chuck take the lead and acted as support.

When Stacker had put him in charge before leaving on that last run with Chuck, he had honestly been shocked, expecting that he would have given the lead role to someone else, like Tendo maybe, who had actually been with him constantly since the beginning.

 _ **Stacker placed his hand on Herc's shoulder and looked at him solemnly.**_

" _ **You are the rock on which this entire operation was built my friend." he told him in that unwaveringly confident voice "Without you, without your determination, we would have never gotten this far. Your support, knowledge and courage will carry the day when this is done."**_

 _ **Pentecost took a breath.**_

" _ **You are the one to see our people through this." he continued. " You have what it takes to lead, and what it takes to keep the "suits and smiles" from ruining this once we've closed the Breach."**_

 _ **Stacker Pentecost looked Hansen in the eyes with the utter, unshakable conviction the man would be famous for in the years to come.**_

" _ **You will not only be able to do this Herc, you are going to do it well."**_

Herc finished putting on his uniform and glanced at the television.

It was the same news on every channel, about the aliens, at the moment showing the graceful ship floating serenely in the air near United Nations Headquarters before cutting to yet another take on the welcoming ceremony now a few days past where the main alien diplomat and her entourage were welcomed.

 _Blue women... One is coming to this meeting too. Chuck would be giving me hell about turning into Captain Bloody Kirk, or threatening to do so himself..._

Herc stopped that train of thought and the pain it still carried and looked at himself in the mirror. Fully clean shaven, hair neat, uniform pressed and squared away.

He looked better than he had the last time he had appeared on a talk show.

There was a knock at the door, and Herc opened it to reveal Raleigh Beckett.

Beckett smiled his half-smile and looked the Marshall over.

"Damn, sir, you look respectable." he grinned at the older man.

"Can it Beckett. Is everyone else ready? What about the meeting room?"Hansen asked, shrugging off his tension with the long practice of an experienced Ranger. He'd had faced worse, and probably stranger things than this before.

"Yeah, Mako and the Kaidonovskys are ready, so are Gottlieb and Geiszler for K-Science and Lightcap, D'Onofrio, and Schoenfield from Jaeger-Tech arrived an hour ago." Beckett informed him "Hell, we've even got the route we'll take to the meeting room set to take us past where the work on Crimson Typhoon and Cherno Alpha is being done."

"Yeah. Don't know if it'll impress 'em or not," Herc mused. "But it's worth a shot, gotta look our best for the new backers."

"Yeah." Raleigh nodded. "Plus side, these guys are way less sleazy than Chau, even if one of them is a banker."

Herc chuckled and shook his head at the reminder of the flamboyant black marketeer as Raleigh continued.

"Heh. You should have seen how excited Tendo was to be the first to ride in an alien spaceship so that he could escort them here." Raleigh laughed as he made way for the still-new Marshall.

–

Standing near Marshall Herc Hansen, Doctor Caitlyn Lightcap reflected on her life. She had played many roles; researcher, pioneer, mother, Jaeger pilot, and now an ambassador to an alien civilization that apparently needed the help of the poor, battered, human race.

Now she was standing among living legends waiting to greet the representatives of said alien civilization who wanted to speak to the PPDC quite apart from the ongoing talks with the United Nations.

 _I wonder if any of these aliens will quite so smoothly handle things as Ambassador Benezia is. It's very easy to believe that she has almost a thousand years of experience at diplomacy from the way she's handling things in New York._

"Look!" Mako Mori called out, pointing to the sky as a sharp, angular-looking craft began descending toward the Last Shatterdome.

 _From the number of sharp edges and points on the spacecraft, I'd bet that it was a Turian design, it would fit the profile for them as a people_. Lightcap mused idly from where she was standing next to her husband, Sergio D'Onofrio, while adjusting her glasses and making sure that her blonde hair was still in place.

The Turian shuttle touched down on the Shatterdome's landing pad and the large hatch on the side opened up, first letting a pair of Turian ceremonial guards out, in full armor, to stand by at the shuttle. Then it disgorged a tall Turian in uniform, with markings of rank and adorned with medals, an Asari Matriarch in a fairly military-seeming outfit, a small, grim seeming Volus in an armored encounter suit, a Salarian with a similar distracted air to the other scientists in the audience and finally Tendo Choi, who was wearing a grin that threatened to cause his head to fall backwards off of the rest of his body.

Tendo preceded the delegation to where the representatives of the PPDC were waiting. Huge grin still on his face, he activated the holographic interface of his borrowed Omni-Tool to make sure the translator was running correctly and synched up with the others in the delegation. Frankly, the new toys were enough that he almost forgot why they were here.

As they came together he introduced them. "Marshall Hercules Hansen, this is General Garvus Arterius representing the Turian Hierarchy, Matriarch Aethyta from the Asari Republics, Guildmaster Din Olar of the Volus Unified Bank and Doctor Lorn Solus representing the Salarian Union." Tendo presented. "Gentlebeings, this is Marshall Hercules Hansen, our leader, along with our remaining Rangers Raleigh Beckett and Mako Mori, as well as Sasha and Alexis Kaidonovsky. From K-Science this is Doctors Hermann Gottlieb and Newton Geiszler, and from Jaeger-Tech Doctors Caitlyn Lightcap and Jasper Schoenfeld, and Major Sergio D'Onofrio."

General Arterius held out his clawed hand to Marshall Hansen. "A true pleasure to meet you at last Marshall." He greeted. "The accomplishments of yourself and your people here are quickly becoming the stuff of legends where we come from."

Herc snorted as he shook the hand of the alien with the resonant voice.

"Yeah, They call it legendary after the fact, while you're doing it , it mostly seems either crazy, terrifying, or both" he replied, with a tight smile "Let's get inside out of the wind and talk."

They walked through the main Jaeger bay where work was underway on both Cherno Alpha and Crimson Typhoon, both Jaegers being largely torn down at this point to be rebuilt to better deal with what had taken them down originally.

Additionally, four new berths were being prepared for the Mark Fives that had been under construction when the PPDC was shut down. They were now en route to the Last Shatterdome as something of a peace offering from the leaders of the world to the people who had saved them all.

Looking over the Jaegers, which were both stripped down to the bare bones, armor plating gone, innards exposed and power cores removed, Doctor Solus paused in the midst of taking pictures."Excuse me," he asked "can you elaborate on what procedures are being undertaken? Most curious to know what is being done here."

"Well," Doctor Schoenfeld began "with Crimson Typhoon, we were lucky in a sense that the main damage was to the Conn Pod only, but with the capabilities the Kaiju displayed in the battle, plus the information you forwarded to us about power systems and newer alloys Doctor Solus, we've decided to take it back to the stripped down stage and do a rebuild using newer, hardened, equipment"

The alien delegation looked at the two enormous mechs currently being rebuilt, awestruck in the presence the Kaiju fighting machines.

"Additionally," Doctor Lightcap added, "with Crimson Typhoon we needed to restructure the PONS system after the loss of the triplets, as we don't have any other Ranger candidates that are Drift compatible in a trio like they were."

"Hmmm..." Doctor Solus responded, touching a finger to his bottom lip "Will require removal of additional arm as well? May be able to make other systems more formidable to compensate, have numerous schematics on hand from crew. Will share with you."

As the group moved along, Doctor Schoenfeld gestured at the skeletal framework of Cherno Alpha, the longest serving of the Jaegers. It was now reduced to a massive frame and seemed much smaller without the armored tower that had formerly acted as the "head" of the Jaeger.

"We call Cherno Alpha the last of the Mark Ones, but that is somewhat sentimental on our part, " he stated "during it's long operational lifetime, Cherno has been updated and upgraded multiple times, it was no more a Mark One Jaeger when it arrived in Hong Kong than Gipsy Danger was a Mark Three when it deployed against Leatherback and Otachi"

He paused, and the group paused with him, the newcomers paying very close attention to his words.

"With what has been forwarded to us about the array of technologies available for the program through your sponsorship, we are going to be able to make the largest update to Cherno Alpha yet." Schoenfeld continued, holding p a hand when it looked like General Arterius may have a concern "Cherno Alpha has a certain legendary mystique among the PPDC, no matter how hard it's been hit over the years, it has always come back swinging hard. With the upgrades we have planned, Cherno Alpha and it's formidable pilots haven't seen their last battle yet!"

Sasha and Alexis Kaidonovsky shouted their approval from the assembled group, followed quickly by applause and cheers from the surrounding work crews.

 _Morale like this, even with all that they've been through and being asked for so much more._ Garvus Arterius mused, _Give me an army with this level of dedication and I could have won the Krogan Rebellions without Salarian bioweapons._

The cheers of the works crews dying down behind them as they went, the group finally made their way down the corridor into the meeting room.

Doctor Solus engaged Lightcap, Schoenfeld, and D'Onofrio in animated technical discussion as they made their way to the meeting room, all of them settling down as they came to their placed at the holographic display table.

While everyone was settling down Herc Hansen remembered his duties as host of the gathering, "Anyone need any refreshments before we get started here?" he asked the visiting dignitaries.

Most demurred but Aethyta spoke up at this point, her smoky voice a bit amused.

"I'll take one of those cigars you've got in that inside pocket if it's alright, Marshall?" she asked with a half grin.

"Yeah, what the hell," he replied passing one to her which she lit using her Omni-Tool.

"Now," Herc started, looking out at everyone assembled at the table, "Let's get down to it."

-

A few hours later, tie loosened and jacket open, Herc Hansen stood on a catwalk looking down at the Jaeger construction going on down below. He had never in his wildest dreams imagined himself in such a surreal position.

According to the banker, funding for the new organization was not going to be an issue, ever. Mako and Raleigh wold personally never have to worry about money again for the rest of their lives, or their great-grandchildren's lives as the bounty on closing a breach was apparently stupidly huge.

Things had gotten a bit chaotic for awhile with the various representatives asking their questions all at once and that banker proving to be the most bloodthirsty bastard Hansen had ever met. But he had managed to get things under control and get them back on course.

He himself had started to sound a bit like Stacker there at the end!

 _"_ _ **All the tech, ships and weapons in the universe won't mean a damn without the one damn thing that really won the war for us: unity." he told the assembled delegates, looking over the holographic map of the galaxy with worlds that had breaches glowing red like wounds. "All of the people of Citadel Space are going to have to come together. All of us here at the Shatterdome are in it for the long haul, everyone that was going to quit already did, but it can't be a human thing, or an Asari, Turian, Salarian or a Volus thing. Unity is what beat them here, and it's what will beat them everywhere else too."**_

 _ **He paused and took a breath**_ _._

 _ **"If we're going to turn the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps into the Pan-Galactic Defense Corps, then we will need to reach across political and species lines and do it together." He looked at the galactic map. "To win a war like this takes more than money, more than soldiers, it takes commitment. It takes everyone involved standing together, from the techs doing maintenance all the way up to the men and women giving the orders. By ourselves we might be heroes or just ordinary people. Together, we're unstoppable!"**_

His contemplation was interrupted by the clearing of a throat. Looking back, he saw Aethyta walking towards him on the catwalk, holding a pair of glasses and a bottle.

"Hell of a speech there Marshall," she greeted him "Want a drink?"

He held a hand out for a glass.

"Damn right I do." he told her as she poured one for each of them. He took a slug of the unfamiliar concoction, strange tasting, but it went down smooth. "So what's on your mind?"

Aethyta let out a sigh as she tossed back a bit of the drink herself.

"Really grabbed me by the quad with that speech Marshall," Aethyta began.

"Call me Herc," he interrupted with weary grin and a toast "You already bought me a drink."

"Alright Herc," Aethyta continued, grinning back at the old soldier, "You've sold me on the Pan Galactic Defense Corps, consider me the first non-human volunteer, I'm signing up. When we went in there, the General had barely any idea what we needed to do, and you showed us that you were just as ready to lead the defense of multiple worlds as you were this one." she told him "I know a few others with serious experience that will be willing too once I talk to them, and a few places we can look for likely recruits."

Herc considered her words for barely a second before responding "Alright, you strike me as a decent sort, I got an instinct for these things," Herc replied, tapping his temple "You want in? You're in."


	12. Unstoppable Force Paradox 4

**RANNOCH, Tikkun System, 2524 CSD**

In the early morning light, the sprawling, coastal city is silent, peaceful, like a monument, or a grave. The architecture is unique, grand and beautiful, the buildings looking like seamless engraved stone except where the stone seemed to thin out and flow into windows. The streets are clean and the grass, trees and shrubbery are all well maintained save for the evidence of a recent storm.

One of the perfectly maintained buildings had a flaw, however. The recent storm had caused a tree branch to be broken and thrown through one of the windows, showering part of the interior with rain, damaging the apartment and it's contents.

Shadows fell across the city as insectile dropships descended from orbit over it.

{Maintenance begun at ((Creator)) Reliquary at grid 1281 sectors 11, 12, and 13.}

Swarms of Geth platforms dropped from the ships overhead, ranging in size from massive Recycling platforms down to tiny, spider-like Maintenance platforms, they began moving across the city, picking up debris from the storm, repairing damage, and cutting grass to maintain exactly three inches of growth.

The building with the broken window was entered by nine Trooper platforms and thirty Maintenance platforms, the only sounds being those caused by movement and work, the Geth now communicating solely through quantum entanglement.

The Trooper platforms entered the apartment with the damaged window, quickly assessing what was damaged beyond viability and what needed only maintenance work done. Proceeding quickly, the Troopers removed two couches and a bed, bringing them out of the building to the waiting Recycling platform for processing.

As this was happening the Maintenance platforms removed broken glass, siphoned up dirt and began carefully cleaning every nanometer of the apartment as a new window was brought up and installed by more spider-like platforms crawling up the exterior of the building.

By the time the Trooper platforms began bringing in fresh furniture, the apartment showed no sign that it had ever been breached by a storm.

Across the city, similar scenes played out, platforms removing debris, repairing damage and performing maintenance in silent, coordinated order. Within an hour, their work was complete and the city looked like a flawless, clean and perfect model of a city, no sign that any being lived there or had ever lived there remained.

The platforms were quickly picked up by the dropships, carrying away the only signs of activity remaining in the city.

{Maintenance of ((Creator)) Reliquary at grid 1281 sectors 11, 12, and 13 complete.}

Elsewhere on Rannoch, other events were getting ready to play out.

The breach, deep beneath the ocean, sat like an ugly, glowing yellow wound in reality. Surrounding it were numerous platforms loaded with the most sophisticated sensory equipment the Geth had ever designed, constantly probing, testing and analyzing all that they could of the breach and it's emissions.

Beyond the sensors, floating in a gigantic mass calculated for optimum close range englobement of the area were thousands of drone-mines.  
Nothing more than high explosives and thrusters designed to ram into and explode on anything emerging from the breach as soon as it did so, this line of defense had been in use for some time, after each emergence the explosives and the design of the mines were changed due to the observed adaptive abilities of the creatures.

Further out still, beyond the immediate effective range of the explosive mines floated a seemingly numberless horde of Torpedo platforms, each loaded with three racks of thirty three powerful super-cavitating torpedoes, they lay in wait for anything surviving the initial attack of the mines, constantly updating firing patterns and targeting information due to changes in the ocean to insure that the maximum possible number of torpedoes hit their targets simultaneously.

Hovering just over the ocean's surface in concentric rings around the area of the breach, thousands of specialized aerial platforms waited with artillery, additional drones, additional Torpedo platforms, and every other weapon that the Geth had found useful dealing with this threat.

Finally, in the upper atmosphere over the area, clusters of worm-like three hundred meter long Removal platforms drifted on their mass effect fields in such numbers that they gave a large swath of that area of the ocean a constant overcast look.

These platforms and runtimes waited, ever alert, never growing bored or restless, constantly ready for the next emergence of the creatures threatening their Creator's homeworld.

The waiting was about to come to an end.

[ALERT. Radiation levels increased by 60% at quantum tunneling event at grid 817, sector 4, sub-aquatic. ALERT. incursion beginning, quantum tunneling event horizon 10% larger than last recorded incursion. Mass readings of emerging organic-constructs 200% of previously recorded organic-constructs.]

The creatures emerging from the breach were more massive and bloated with flesh and armor than any seen on any other world, their lower extremities were designed for propelling them through the water while strangely, their other limbs were almost vestigial, good only for directing the creatures through the water.

As they emerged the mines englobing the area of the breach propelled themselves toward them, the sensor platforms transferred their runtimes out just a moment before the mines made contact with the creatures.

The first wave of explosions caused the ocean to boil for kilometers around the area, vaporizng water and creating a temporary vacuum in the area of effect.

The bloated, ungainly creatures emerged from this hellstorm, each taking a different course toward land.

They were met by a seemingly endless wave of torpedoes, as each Torpedo platform fired it's payload it would emerge from the ocean allowing those behind it to fire unobstructed.

Waves of explosions rippled through the sea, ripping up the armor and flesh of the incredibly dense monsters, killing them by inches as the Torpedo platforms exhausted their payloads.

Finally, after long minutes of continuous fire, the creatures died, having taken more punishment than than any three creatures before them and depleting most of the ammunition of the underwater platforms.

The ocean was still boiling and a tsunami of gargantuan proportions had been started, going outward in every direction, the platforms above the ocean had been forced to relocate and the surface and air was filled with vaporized water and toxic blood.

[ALERT: quantum tunneling event increasing radiation output by a further 10%, quantum tunneling event horizon expanding by an additional 10% incursion continues]

Moving through the boiling seawater like lightning, eight more creatures emerged from the breach, each of them large, sleek and optimized for war. The initial defenses nearly exhausted, they were able to surface almost unopposed.

As the creatures emerged from the water, they were greeted by a massive volley of missiles from the Rocket platforms waiting above. Responding instantly, the creature's upper limbs unfolded into wings to allow them to hover in place and sphincter-like openings covering their multi-limbed bodies began spitting hypersonic pulses of horrifically destructive chemicals at the incoming ordinance.

The eight tentacles adorning the lower bodies of the Kaiju moved with blinding speed, hurling viscous globs at the surrounding Geth platforms with tremendous force, barriers canceled a great deal of the kinetic energy, but what remained along with the nature of the chemical payload itself reaped a terrible toll among the defending platforms.

Heralded by distant thunder, dozens of Removal platforms entered the fray from above, while the platforms were easily longer than any individual creature, the Kaiju each out-massed a Removal platform in it's normal state.

The Removers moving on the most direct courses toward the Kaiju were greeted with volleys of hypersonic chemicals and sprays of powerful acids that did horrific levels of damage, rendering them mission-killed in an instant, only those platforms taking a less direct route avoided the onslaught.

The Removers that were angling their attack on a more horizontal course were treated to one of the newest innovations in Kaiju weaponry as the beasts raised their powerful upper arms and the "fingers" began arcing electricity between them as another chemical payload was launched through the electrical field from the "palm" transforming into charged plasma that the Kaiju fired at the oncoming platforms with abandon.

[quantum tunneling event returning to stable, non active output. New organic-construct tactics effective against current defenses. Employing reserve tactic [SWARM], holding additional REMOVAL platforms until tactic [SWARM] deployed.]

/Formulating alternate defensive preparations. Avoiding resemblance to all previous defensive preparations.\\\

The first two Removal platforms to get through the defensive volley moved to close the distance with two of the Kaiju, unfurling their metallic tentacles as they did so. The Kaiju grappled with the platforms as they closed in, their tentacles ripping huge swaths of armor off of the Geth even as the close-in lasers and plasma cannons fired.

Realizing immediately that their situation was untenable, the Removal platforms activated their final weapon, and immediately exploded with the force of small nuclear weapons.

The overpressure from the two explosions scattered the formation of Kaiju and the explosions left the two assaulted Kaiju injured, with cracked armor and damaged limbs. In the immediate aftermath of the explosions, the two remaining Removal platforms from the initial assault emerged from the water, attaching themselves to the damaged Kaiju and delivered their nanotech payload, rendering the Kaiju insensate and vectoring for orbit at hypersonic speeds.

One of them made it. The other was brought down through sustained plasma-fire from the six remaining Kaiju.

In the midst of the heat, smoke, and steam from the battle thus far, the six Kaiju were working on destroying the floating artillery that continued to bombard them somewhat inaccurately.  
Within this haze of battle, a rippling in the air signaled a new attack as troop carriers near each remaining Kaiju dropped their tactical cloaks and thousands of comparatively small Geth Trooper and Prime platforms leaped onto each Kaiju, attacking point blank with hand-held weapons and explosives, seeking to disable weapons and crack armor and utterly heedless of any losses suffered.

 _The micro-Consensus of 1,183 maneuvered their Prime platform along the moving, hostile surface of the organic-construct, thus far avoiding the destruction visited on many their fellow platforms, as they did so, they used their free limb to fire their Plasma Shotgun repeatedly into one of the apertures used by the organic-construct to fire corrosive chemicals. The aperture represented a weak point in the armor, so the micro-Consensus decided to exhaust the energy cell of their Plasma Shotgun to make an opportunity to use the disabling weapon the Prime platforms had been provided with.  
As they were doing so, they had to scramble quickly to avoid a massive tentacle coming toward them, smashing into the surface of the organic-construct, missing them by centimeters.  
Seeing that the armor of the organic-construct was now compromised near the aperture, they removed the large, almost medical looking device from storage on their back and quickly dove to attach it to the area.  
Having successfully done so, the micro-Consensus of 1,183 allowed their Prime platform to fall from the organic-construct and slip beneath the ocean. Abandoning the platform for later pickup or recycling, the micro-Consensus returned to their primary server hub via QEC and dedicated their runtimes toward assisting the next operation they were needed for._

Even as the Troopers and Primes were destroyed they managed to inject the Kaiju with nerve-destroying nanites, causing crippling pain and seizures in them, leaving them far more vulnerable to the next wave of Removal platforms dropping from the upper atmosphere.


	13. Outside Context Solution 9

**HONG KONG SHATTERDOME, March 2, 2025 CE (First Contact Day +24)**

The Shatterdome was revitalized. All of the personnel that had wanted to be there for the big finale but weren't able to for a variety of reasons had finally made their way there and they were being supplemented by experts and specialists brought in by the new alien members of the as-yet unofficial Pan-Galactic Defense Corps.

The entire facility was bustling with action, transports from both Earth-bound locations and dropships from space were coming and going at all hours. Six Jaegers were currently in the process of being built and re-built to a new standard that was a quantum leap beyond even the powerful Mark Five class.

Within the controlled chaos of the main Jaeger bay, the first recruit to the PGDC was being reunited with her spouse, who was finally able to get a break from her ongoing diplomatic work with the leaders of the Earth who were being introduced to the galactic community.

"Nezzie!" Aethyta greeted her spouse, drawing her into an enthusiastic kiss "By the Goddess I've missed you! You look incredible! You getting those political hacks whipped into shape?"

Benezia took a moment to bask in the tsunami of affection that washed over her before answering. "So far, it's been a bit slow going, but the turnover in leadership in a lot of the less forward thinking countries has helped." she told her lover. "Truthfully, I'm exhausted. Show me around? I'd like to catch up."

Many beings would have been upset if their mate had made an impulsive decision to join a new military outfit without consulting them first. Benezia, however, knew Aethyta better than anyone else in the universe and had fully realized that when she came to this place as part of General Arterius' delegation that there was a good chance that she would be drawn into it one way or another. It was just in her character.

"It's mostly a lot of tech-work out here, but if you look over there," Aethyta said, pointing to the largest of the four Mark Five chassis that were being worked on by a large crew of Humans, already supplemented by a few Salarian and Turian techs who were learning on the job, "That beauty has already been named Argent Grendel and if Urdnot and I are as compatible for piloting as I think we will be, that's going to be our Jaeger."

"I suppose I eventually expected you to put your fist into an Outsider's face one way or another," Benezia replied with a grin and quirk of her brow, "I'm glad it'll be by proxy with backup from your old friend rather than more directly."

Aethyta put an arm around her spouse and pulled her close as they walked further into the facility.

"Before I go gallivanting around, I'm personally going to make sure that you get a little time to relax before going back to playing politics." she vowed.

Benezia rolled her eyes and leaned into her lover, kissing her on the cheek "You take such good care of me."

"Yeah," Aethyta replied with a grin. "You're the lucky one here."

-

"[Neural Bridge stable, mind to mind interface operating at fifty percent, Random Access Brain Impulse Trigger loop stable.]" reported the calm, feminine voice of the Shatterdome's VI system to the two doctors overseeing Newton Geiszler and Hermann Gottlieb, who were currently in an apparent dream state while reclining in articulated chairs with the PONS equipment resting on their heads.

"It really is fascinating to watch in action." Doctor Eya Simm said, looking over the readouts of the PONS system in action, "We'd never even conceived of anything like this!"

Doctor Caitlyn Lightcap looked up from her own readouts to the slightly eccentric Asari psychiatric technician, who had until recently been doing work for a corporation in the Asari Republics researching direct implantation of information in brains.

She looked much like one expected an Asari to look, pale blue with the backswept head-crest, however her interesting choice of always wearing clothing that incorporated feathers made her stand out from any crowd.

"Well, now that you've had the time to familiarize yourself with it, I was hoping you could help me fix the problem that these two have ever since their Drift with a Kaiju brain." Doctor Lightcap said, worriedly looking back at her display "Thus far, regular Drifts like this to help reinforce their mental strength and anti-anxiety medications are all we've been able to do to deal with this."

With that, Doctor Lightcap clicked on an icon and a holographic representation of the combined minds of the two scientists was displayed above the workstations the two were using.

In the midst of the three dimensional, multicolored waves and symbols used to help conceptualize the data being displayed was a black, malevolent-looking mass that was obviously interfering with the function of both minds.

The hard data on what they were seeing scrolled by as the two doctors took it all in.

Newt had termed it "memetic cancer" and the holographic representation definitely seemed tumorous.

"Whoah." Eya breathed "I've only seen something like that once before, and it was only a little bit like that..."

"Really?" Caitlyn asked, both brows raising above her glasses "Where? I thought technology like this wasn't in use in Citadel Space and that an Asari meld didn't cause mental trauma like this."

Eya shook her head, the feathers on her coat's collar vibrating, "It wasn't from any of that!" she replied, calling up some data on her Omni-Tool "It was when one of my colleagues got exposed to a damaged Prothean Beacon. You know about those, right? Most of them use a direct mind interface, but this one was damaged and it hurt her pretty badly, here I'm uploading the data now."

Doctor Lightcap was, without a doubt, one of the most brilliant minds native to Earth and she proved it once more by quickly translating the scans taken of the afflicted Asari and translating what they would mean if similar damage was done to a human mind.

"You're right, it is similar." she noted, still going over the data "Did you manage to develop an effective treatment?"

Eya hummed and made a vague gesture with her right hand. "Sorta?" she answered "By the time we got it working, she was pretty far gone, but I'm really sure that we can make it work for your boys here!"

"Even if the actual tech for doing it _is_ considered a bit sketchy." she muttered, almost inaudibly.

Caitlyn Lightcap cleared her throat to get Eya's attention and fixed the Asari with the same look that caused her own children to confess their wrongdoings quickly. "Sketchy how, exactly?" she inquired.

"It's considered sketchy because it's the same sort of thing you'd use to make a brain imprint for a clone." Eya explained. "It brings up the old specter of creating armies of flash-grown soldiers ready to fight as soon as they climb out of their glassy wombs."

"Not that _we_ did anything like that!" Eya continued, "We used it to basically scrub out the affected memories. It's just that most of her memories were affected by that point and she had to re-learn a bunch of stuff afterward."

 _Like how to use the toilet_ Eya thought to herself.

"In this case, the "Drift Therapy" looks like it's kept the affected parts pretty limited and I think we can get the bad memories excised without these two losing anything that they'll miss." Eya hastened to explain.

"We are going to go over every step of this very carefully, and we're going to make sure that these two are fully informed." Lightcap commanded "They may even be able to help, having a good bit of experience with Neural Bridge technology themselves."

"That sounds fine to me," Eya agreed, nodding sagely "Hey! Didn't Newt build a PONS system out of random crap laying around his lab once?"

"Truthfully, Human sciences very close to galactic standards where Jaeger engineering is involved," Lorn Solus told his peers in the planning room where they were going over the schematics for the updated Jaegers, "Lack of Mass Effect technology, fusion power, and flash fabrication does not undermine fantastic work done in the construction, the modifications we will need to do are like so."

Doctor Solus manipulated the controls for the holo-display and the images of the Jaegers under construction floating above the table shifted to focus on the new "flagship" Jaeger that had only just begun construction: Striker Pentecost.

Resembling a descendant, design-wise of both Striker Eureka and Gipsy Danger, it had already been earmarked for the Beckett-Mori piloting team. It was a quantum leap beyond either of it's spiritual ancestors, incorporating an Element Zero core, fusion reactors, flash fabrication, mass-alteration and kinetic barriers.

The four assembled at the table were all experts in multiple fields. Lorn Solus held the highest number of actual degrees in the hard sciences as well as extensive espionage training. Lucius Arkainian from the Turian Military R&D division had the most field experience with galactic military technology. Jasper Schoenfeld, the man who had basically invented Jaegers as a concept. And last but not least, Sergio D'Onofrio, one of the first Jaeger pilots and responsible for the first Kaiju killed by a Jaeger, he had gone on to enhance his engineering knowledge when Brawler Yukon was retired and had worked on the Mark Three and up Jaeger designs.

"I do have a basic understanding of the technologies involved, but I think we're going to need more in depth information here, especially on the flash-fabrication system," Schoenfeld stated. "It's similar in principle to the Omni-Tool, yes?"

"It is," Arkainian answered, "We have deployed similar systems in various war machines over the years, but with the pilot interface the Jaegers use, we can implement the system to it's full potential and with far more Omni-Gel feedstock onboard too. We'll be able to implement variations of this tech that were previously only achievable on the small scale."

As he was speaking Doctor Arkainian sent video files detailing what he was explaining to both of the Human engineers.

"Jesus Christ!" D'Onofrio whispered in awe. "If we can implement half of these function in a Jaeger it'll be a complete game changer."

"You're not kidding there Sergio," Schoenfeld added, "self-repair on the fly is one thing, but some of this is as close to magic as I've ever seen."

"Ah! Good! Then you are in proper frame of mind to discuss the systems we are considering for Jaegers with biotically active pilots!" Doctor Solus interjected.

-

Later in the day, Marshall Hercules Hansen was in his office going over the voluminous amount of paperwork that was coming across his desktop.

The fact that most of it was on the computer and not actual paper somehow didn't make it any less daunting a task.

More than half of the things he was being asked to look over and either approve or not would have been pure science fiction to him a year before. The main Shatterdome being re-located to a space habitat in lunar orbit, results of PONS testing on aliens and requests for more alien volunteers from other species to help establish a baseline, and the most sensitive issue; which worlds would be getting permanent Shatterdome installations first.

 _Damn, that is going to need to be handled very carefully_ he mused to himself _Maybe I should ask Aethyta's wife about a nice, diplomatic way of doing it, she seems to be handling those hacks at the UN like an old pro._

A rapid fire knock at his office door drew his attention from the hard part of being the leader of the PPDC. _Soon to be PGDC_ , he reminded himself

"Yeah!" he called, "Come in!"

Doctor Lorn Solus opened to door to the Marshall's office and made his way in. As was his usual manner, he began speaking almost immediately.

"Marshall! Good to see you! Have you seen designs for the first Mobile Shatterdome? Was just on comms with head of project Han'Zorah Vas Rayya, design is a brilliant melding-"Doctor Solus began, before being cut off by the Marshall.

"Yeah, I've seen the design, it looks good, but that's not what I want to talk to you about." Herc interjected quickly. Having already seen the Doctor get on a roll, he knew he needed to get his words in fast before the brilliant Salarian drew him in and he forgot the original topic.

"Oh? Of course!" Doctor Solus checked his impulse to guess, he knew the Marshall was a man who would get to the point quickly "I am at your disposal."

"Something has been on my mind for awhile now and this is the first chance I've had to ask you about it." Herc began. "You Salarian fellas were watching things since well before the fight in the harbor, but the only thing you did was prevent Cherno Alpha from completely being destroyed. Why?"

Doctor Solus paced the office for a moment as he considered his answer, his right hand coming to his chin in thought.

"Difficult situation, you must understand, intervention for Cherno Alpha was inspired move by Operative Daelon, one of the first volunteers for PGDC, seventy five percent of my old crew volunteered." He started. "Whole situation was difficult, heartbreaking. Wanted to help. Silent Step was not built for combat, but stealth. May have been able to intervene in battle at Hong Kong if had been closer, but position made it impossible to move ship in time. Very difficult decision. More so when time came for final assault, worse then, our weapons could not penetrate ocean reliably, not suited for planetary bombardment, ship not suited to go underwater."

His large black eyes locked with Hansen's. "Wanted to help, wanted to do more. Hurt to do so little, but had no choice. Partly that is why so much of crew will do everything possible to help now. When we were watching we had no choice but to have faith. Now we have the chance to do more. We _will_ do more."

"I think I can see where you're coming from there" Herc replied, remembering the frustration and hope he and Chuck had experienced while stuck watching Gipsy Danger fight Leatherback and Otachi while trapped in and on Striker Eureka. "I had to know though. It'd been botherin' me."

He looked up at the clock and back at the now uncharacteristically silent Salarian.

"We're technically off work for the moment, mandatory break times and all that." he said "Want to join me for a drink Doctor?"

The next morning found Newt Geiszler and Hermann Gottlieb sitting in the medical bay facing an enthusiastic Asari and less enthusiastic Human, both Doctors, one smiling at the two of them and the other leaning against the wall with her face in one hand.

"So...Let me get this straight" Newt began, "You want to fix the problem that has turned the two of us into pill popping anxiety cases by selectively _erasing parts of our minds_?"

Nodding at Newt's somewhat inaccurate explanation Eya smiled hugely "Basically!" she enthused at the two men "But it's not like we'd be erasing good stuff, just the parts that are driving you crazy!"

"For the love of God _that's_ insane!" Hermann shouted "Memories aren't just individuals files! They're interconnected, you're a damn psychiatrist and a neurologist, you should know that! You could very well reduce us to drooling idiots!"

Eya recoiled from the vehemence of Hermann's outburst, some of the feathers on the cuffs and collar of her "labcoat" falling off as if she were suddenly molting.

Before she could say anything else however, Doctor Lightcap decided to interject. "Hermann, Newt, please calm down." she explained in her calmest tones. "We would be doing a very careful mapping of every connection that the malignant memories have before attempting any excision. The two of you will be fully in the loop for this and we will do _nothing_." she looked at Eya significantly as she said this "Until everyone is satisfied there will be no damage to your minds."

Newt and Hermann simultaneously reached into their right pants pockets and pulled out a bottle of pills each, they shook two out in unison and dry swallowed them. They replaced the pill bottles and crossed their arms, looking at the two doctors after sharing a look that communicated volumes.

"Alright," Newt said, "We're in, but we want to be in on all of this, okay?"

"Indeed," Hermann added "I don't want to end up a tabula rasa simply due to... _Enthusiasm_."

"Awesome!" Eya squealed in delight, grabbing Caitlyn in a one armed hug "We're going to make science history guys! Count on it!"

 **ILLIUM, Tasale System, March 19, 2025 CE**

Nos Astra was a beautiful, if subtly treacherous city. It usually hid it's darker side behind a facade of civility and commerce.

Down in the lover levels of the vast collection of arcologies that made up the city that was less true. The nightclub named Hive hid very little of it's dark side. It was a hangout for the nastiest of Nos Astra's urban predators, guns for hire, mercs and other lowlifes.

Glowering sullenly out over the denizens of this place was Urdnot Wrex, who had taken a temporary job as a bouncer here to kill time while waiting for his next payday.

Handling the scum in this place kept him from getting too rusty between _real_ jobs.

Looking at the scarred Krogan, it might be easy to dismiss him as just one of many such wanderers of his species. But Urdnot Wrex was cast from a different mold than most Krogan.

He was a skilled biotic, a time tested tactician and strategist, and a nearly unstoppable combatant. For nearly a thousand years he had wandered the galaxy, staying away from his people for the most part because most of all, he was _smart_. If his life had gone differently, he could have easily been a scientist, a philosopher, or any number of things that would allow him to carve a far different reputation for himself.

As it was, his raw intelligence had caused him to develop a deep cynicism in regards to his own people. Holding little hope for them, he had decided to make his own way and damn all consequences.

With the vast experience and situational awareness he had, it was more than surprising when someone actually managed to sneak up on him.

"So big guy, finally manage to find your place in the universe, or are ya doing this for the free drinks?" A smoky voice inquired from his elbow.

Surprise, however, did not slow his battle hardened reflexes and as soon as the voice had started to speak, he had already spun toward the speaker, a biotic barrier flaring to life as a huge pistol almost teleported into his hand to point at the owner of the smoky voice.

"Dammit Aethyta!," Wrex growled at his old friend "One of these times I'm actually going to shoot you, just to stop you from doing that!"

Aethyta smirked, knowing that she was probably the last being in the galaxy that could so totally get the drop on the old Battlemaster.

"Yeah, but then who would you share war stories with?" she asked saucily "You don't have that many friends with that charming personality you carry around."

Wrex snorted, holstering the pistol. Then he focused more fully on his friend, who he hadn't seen since her wedding nearly three decades prior.

"What got you out here digging me up, anyway?" he asked her "Didn't figure you'd get a hankering for a scrap for a few more years yet, that diplomat you married made ya soft."

Aethyta scowled at the jibe, despite the fact it was sort of true, and replied "C'mon, I got something to discuss with you privately. I have a line on some serious action and I need the best to back me up for it."

As Wrex made to follow her out of the club, abandoning the boring job without a second thought he snarked back "Serious action? It's a little late to be coming on to me now half-breed, you're married."

Aethyta rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I'll somehow manage to keep my hands to myself, just c'mon!"

Forty five minutes later, the two of them were on Aethyta's ship and she had finished filling Wrex in on what the PGDC was about and what she wanted him for.

"So..." Wrex started, "The two of us in one of those giant 'mechs fighting the Outsiders, eh? Why not?"

He grinned, showing a great many sharp teeth.

"But what are the rest of the pilots gonna do while we're kicking all that monster ass?"


	14. Outside Context Solution 10

**LESSUS, Mesana System, March 22, 2025**

The Monastery of the Justicars was surprisingly beautiful considering the austerity of the Justicar Order and the dread in which their charges were held.

It was not, however, surprising when one considered that the first of the Ardat Yakshi kept at this place were left with little to do other than improve their surroundings. Improve them they had, and after a millennium and more of work, the Monastery of the Justicars was an architectural work of art.

Aethyta and Wrex looked out over the monastery from the cliff-side landing pad that they'd set the Matriarch's ship down on.

"Looks fairly boring." Wrex grumbled, not one to appreciate architecture, "Why the hell are we here, exactly?"

"Easy, this job needs people who can kick some ass and have mental discipline," Aethyta explained. "Justicars fit the bill on both counts. If I can persuade even a few of them to sign up, that'd be some serious ass-kicking in the mix."

"Yeah, alright." Wrex assented, starting toward the path down. "Let's get it over with then."

A few hours later saw Wrex sitting quietly on a meditation mat before a window that overlooked a breathtaking sculpture garden, arms folded in a specific position in front of him, his eyes downcast and incredibly focused.

Aethyta came storming out of the room where she had been speaking to one of the higher ranking Justicars and lighting a cigar as she came to a stop near where Wrex was.

"Stuck up bitches..." she muttered as she blew out a cloud of blue smoke.

Realizing that Wrex hadn't reacted to her arrival, she looked down at the old Battlemaster and noticed his Omni-Tool was lit up and he was extremely focused on...

"Wrex, have you been sitting out here playing video games?" Aethyta asked, somewhat incredulously. Though she could admit to herself that _Omega Rachni Invasion_ was exactly the kind of game Wrex would enjoy.

Wrex looked at Aethyta with a slight scowl "Yeah, and now I'm all screwed up." he answered her, "I've gotta kill time somehow, what else was I gonna do? Meditate?" he snorted in derision and shut down the video game on his Omni-Tool.

"So...How'd it go?" he asked, already having a good idea. "You look pissed."

"They're "considering the wisdom of my request", which means they're finding a way to say no without sounding like they're pussying out," Aethyta growled and took another long drag from her cigar. "Bitches are all hardcore when chasing down criminals and shit, but ask 'em to fight a war for existence and they're suddenly scrambling in the sutras of their precious Code for reasons not to. Guardians of Justice and Preservers of the Sacred Code my blue ass!"

Wrex hopped to his feet rather nimbly for such a large creature and clapped his friend on the shoulder. "C'mon, let's take a walk back down to the ship and get some ryncol, it'll take the edge off."

The two of them were on their way down a sloping ramp that had been carved by hand in place of stairs when Aethyta suddenly stopped, looking out over the courtyard.

Nearly ramming into her, Wrex barked "'The hell? You trying to get run over?"

"Shh! Look!" Aethyta shushed him pointing over the delicate railing to the courtyard below. "If _that_ isn't Drift compatibility, I'll go wrestle Kalros!"

Below them, in the courtyard, two relatively young Asari were engaged in a dance-like meditative martial arts-biotic kata.

Moving with graceful synchronicity, their limbs gracefully interweaving in an extremely well coordinated dance as around them small crystal spheres were flowing like a stream of glowing motes passed smoothly from one biotic field to the other.

Their movements were fluid and smooth, the very essence of serene motion as they flowed with the veritable river of motes they were surrounded by and neither one of them opened their eyes as they went through the complex routine.

Eventually, like water coming to a resting pool, their movements came to a halt, the motes of light returning to simple crystal as they settled into place in the courtyard around them. The two Asari then looked and acknowledged the Matriarch and her Krogan companion who had joined them during their kata.

They turned and gave a slight bow. From their faces it was obvious they were sisters and of close age to one another.

"Greetings," the Asari on the left said. "Is there something we can help you with?"

"Maybe so." Aethyta murmured, looking the two over. "What are your names girls?"

"I'm Falare," the one on the left answered, "This is my sister Rila."

"A pleasure to meet you, I'm sure." Rila added, "But truly, is there something we can do for you?"

The two were both surprised and confused by the massive grin that broke out on the Matriarch's face as she regarded them.

"Girls, I'm almost certain there is." she told them. "Let me tell you about the PGDC..."

-

Standing before six Justicars, Aethyta spoke with passion and sincerity as she wrapped up her appeal.

"What would be the greater injustice?" she asked "Allowing these two and possibly others like them to go free of this gilded cage, or to allow the millions, or perhaps _billions_ of innocent lives that they could save through their service to die?"

She looked each of the Justicars unflinchingly in the eyes. "We aren't talking about rogues here, these girls have proven their dedication to the safety of others, they have committed no crimes, they've kept themselves here. Locked away from the universe on the _possibility_ that they could do greater harm by being a part of it."

"Now they have a chance to blaze a trail for others like themselves to actually give back to the galaxy that is sheltering them." Aethyta continued. "They can be a part of something greater than themselves, they can save lives. Don't deny them this chance."

Justicar Aelria, the most senior of the Justicars at the monastery at that time nodded to Aethyta. "We thank you for your insight Matriarch. Allow us a short time to consult and we will tell you what we have decided best serves the Code."

 _I hope I learned enough from you to make a difference here Nezzie_ Aethyta prayed inwardly as she exited the chamber.

"Relax, wouldya?" Wrex told his friend. "Your pacing is starting to make _me_ nervous."

Aethyta stopped and sighed. "Yeah, it's not like me either. But those girls have serious potential and it's being wasted here. Goddess, I'd have gladly traded any five commandos I served with to have two as coordinated as them with me!"

Just then, the door to the chamber opened and Justicars Aelria and Tassa came out.

"We have decided there is merit to what you have presented to us, Matriarch Aethyta." Aelria told her. "It is allowed, under a certain reading of the Code, for the Lost to redeem themselves in battle, but it has not happened since the Rachni Wars. Nevertheless, we will send Justicar Tassa along as well as an observer, to make sure that discipline is maintained."

Justicar Aelria was taken aback when Aethyta grabbed her and gave her a firm kiss.

"You won't regret this!" Aethyta told her before looking at the equally shocked Tassa and saying "You get packed, I'll go get the girls, we've got a galaxy to save!"


End file.
